THE GOLDEN POT 



BAIN 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



BY THE Ay* 
Rev. JOHN Wf BAIN, 

Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, 
ALTOONA, Pa. 



Zbc floIDen pot tbat bao manna,' 

Hebrews ix: 4. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

JOHN MCGILL WHITE & CO., 

1328 Chestnut Street. 



(THE LI»*AiT 
jo? C ONG* ***) 
WASHIWOTOIT 



-%£«* 



17158 
J* 

Copyright, 1898, 

BY 

JOHN McGILL WHITE & CO. 










, 



This book is, at least in one respect, like 
' ' the golden pot ' ' after which it is named. The 
possession of that entire vessel, however valuable 
its material, would enrich no one, but to appro- 
priate its contents would enrich any soul beyond 
compare. So to buy this book will impoverish 
no one, nor its possession, a mere book, however 
acceptable the material and work, will enrich no 
one, but to appropriate and use its contents, I 
believe will enrich the soul. For this reason it is 
issued to readers. The Author. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



1. The Golden Pot That Had Manna, Hebrews ix: 4, 9 

2. Christ Coming Over the Mountains, Song of Solomon ii: 8, . . 24 

3. Peter's Peril, Matthew xiv: 30, 38 

4. Justice and Salvation, Isaiah xlv: 21, 57 

5. Moral Distance; or, Border-Land Loyalty, Exodus viii: 28, . . 73 

6. Sin a Blood-Hound, Numbers xxxii: 23; Proverbs xiii: 21, . . 90 

7. Shall the Bible be Expelled from the School-House? Matthew 

xxvii: 23, 106 

8. X-Rays of the Bible, Hebrews iv: 12, 145 

9. Strength and Responsibilities of Young Men, 1 John ii: 14; . 153 

10. The Preacher's Theme, Acts v: 42, 172 

11. Our Kinf, Isaiah xxxiii: 22, 187 

12. Beautiful Situation of the Church, Psalm xlviii: 2, 200 

13. Success in Life, John xii: 26, 214 

14. The Great Carpenter, Mark vi: 3, 235 

15. Proof of Manhood, I Kings ii: 2, 246 

16. Thanksgiving, Psalm cxviii: 29, . . " ■ 262 

17. A Young Man's Strength, Proverbs xx: 29, 273 

18. The Devil's Plea, Luke iv: 34, 284 



I I. 

"The Golden Pot That Had Manna." 

"The golden pot that had manna" Hebrews ix: 4. 

In Exodus Moses does not tell us of what materia? 
this pot was made, but Paul here — directed by the 
Holy Spirit — tells us it was golden — bright, durable, 
precious gold. The Spirit surely had a reason for 
giving us this fact. The value of the material only 
implies that the contents are more precious and price- 
less. Suppose you were shown a casket of curious, 
elegant, elaborate workmanship, embellished with all 
manner of precious stones, dazzling bright with the 
purest diamonds: you might admire its workmanship, 
costliness, ornaments and beauty, but would you not 
have an intense desire to see its contents? Such a 
casket must surely contain something surpassing the 
great Kohinoor, the mountain of light, for the con- 
tents are always supposed to be more precious than 
the vessel. So it is here. What did the pot contain? 
Manna: What! Nothing but manna? That which 
became loathed by the Israelites as stale, dry bread? 
Yes, only manna. P>ut a thing is not less precious 
because some undervalued it. Some esteem the 
purest Gospel ministry as stale bread; this does not 
make it less precious. So with this manna. 

Let us notice a few things concerning it. First. 
God provided it. No mortal, no human wisdom, ever 
yet discovered what it was, how provided or prepared. 
Second. In love God gave it to sustain the lives of the 
Israelites in their desert journey. And could they 



10 THE GOLDEN POT. 

have washed gold in abundance from the mountain 
gorges around them, or gathered purest, brightest 
diamonds along the shores of the Red Sea, yet when 
they were starving they would not have exchanged 
this manna for them all; therefore it was the most 
precious thing to them. Third. God provided it in 
abundance, superabundance for them all, and rained 
it all around them as long as they needed it. 

But what did it typify? You remember our Lord 
said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This 
represented something better than mere bread; it 
represented that upon which the soul could feed. 
Our Saviour tells us it represented the bread of 
heaven, the bread of life. It typified Jesus, and the 
infinite, sovereign mercy, love and grace which God 
provided in Him, that men might live upon it; that 
sinful men might live upon it through all the journey 
of earth, then live forever upon it. Then we need it, 
quite as much as the Jews needed the manna of their 
day; nay, more do we need what it typified, and must 
perish without it — then it must be most precious. 
Has God prepared any manna for us? As Aaron laid 
this up in a golden pot, has God in any golden vessel 
prepared and laid up manna for us? Yes, praise be to 
His name. Thanks for His grace and providing love, 
He has laid up provision for us for time and for 
eternity. To-day we propose simply to notice where 
or in what vessels God has laid up our manna. 

First. The Word of God, the Bible, is a golden pot 
that has manna. This distinguishes it from every 
other book on earth, makes it precious above all 
others. As a mere vessel, its material is golden. It 
contains history golden for its value, being the most 



THE GOLDEN POT. II 

ancient and authentic. With the panoramic vivid- 
ness of an eye-witness, it gives us a record of what 
none but a divine or inspired mind ever saw; it takes 
us back to the "beginning," when "the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy;" when light broke forth from the presence of 
God upon creation, when the sun was kindled in 
heaven, and the moon was appointed her place; when 
the firmament was spread out as a curtain, and the 
world was founded upon the deep; when the earth was 
formed and beautified to be inhabited, man was 
created upon it, and Time began its course. It tells 
us of the fall, and the cause of that fearful wreck , and 
ruin, and fall so terrible it shook earth to its center, 
and the crash sounded through all the universe of 
God. But it has also golden prophecies that, like 
"the rosy fingers of dawn," point to a full noon-tide 
day of recovery, and point on to the golden consum- 
mation in the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. 
It has in it golden biographies. Besides that of the 
Son of God, it has biographies of the most illustrious 
personages of earth, whose lives of faith, and fidelity, 
and hope, and purity, and joy, and strength, are a 
priceless legacy to mankind. It contains a golden 
law. civil, sanitary, judicial, moral, spiritual and 
eternal — a law "holy, just and good," the foundation 
of all wise earthly legislation, an infallible guide in 
every relation, duty and position of life. It has a 
golden narrative of events the most marvellous and 
important, and stories exceeding the imagination of 
romance or the fascinations of any fancy sketch. It 
has a golden philosophy of life, and arguments in de- 
fence of truth, justice and purity, surpassing all mere 
human logic and reasoning, in value. It has golden 



12 THE GOLDEN POT. 

songs of praise worthy of an angel's tongue or the 
harps of the redeemed. It has a golden poetry and 
eloquence running through it from beginning to end. 
In the first mere fiat of light, in Judah's speech for 
Benjamin, in the lyrics of King David, the seraphic 
prophecies of Isaiah, the mystical grandeur of Ezekiel,. 
the graphic, creative Joel, the lofty argument of Paul, 
the tenderness of John, and the dazzling glory of 
heaven opened in Revelation, there is poetry unrivaled 
or unequaled in any other book or language among 
men. It has golden parables, unique, rich in truth, 
and of surpassing beauty. It has a golden rule of 
world-wide application, just and perfect as the mea- 
suring rule of the upper temple. But all this, unparal- 
leled history, perfect legislation, true sublimity, ex- 
quisite beauty, pure morality, finest poetry and 
eloquence of the book, is but the precious material 
of the golden vessel. Its highest excellence, its price- 
less value, is that it has manna in it. Food God pre- 
pared, sent from heaven, food to feed the soul; the 
guilty, needy, starving soul. Aaron could make the 
golden vessel, but God alone could provide and pre- 
pare the manna it contained. Human wisdom and 
learning might provide a book of literary excellence, 
of history, law, philosophy, morality, poetry, eloquence 
and song, and call it a golden legend; but all human 
wisdom and learning could not put the manna into it 
the Bible contains, food for the life of the soul. Why? 
Because all human wisdom and learning could not 
tell who or what God is; they could not find out the 
Almighty, nor the perfections of the Holy One. They 
knew not His name nor His Son's name. They could 
not discover His unity, spirituality, holiness, justice, 
or grace; could not tell that "He is a Spirit, infinite, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 1 3 

eternal, and unchangeable in being, wisdom, power, 
holiness, justice, and truth." The world by wisdom 
knew not God, and for want of this knowledge the 
race was suffering and perishing from off the earth, 
and must forever perish. They could not tell that 
He had a Son, an only and well-beloved Son; much 
less tell that this Son would assume human nature, 
''the likeness of sinful flesh," to suffer and die in 
His love for men. They could not tell with assured 
■certainty man's origin, nor sinful man's perishing 
need, nor could they answer this question, "When he 
gives up the spirit, where is he?" They could not 
tell how sin could be pardoned, the guilty justified, 
purified and crowned with eternal life and glory, yet 
sin condemned, truth confirmed, law magnified, jus- 
tice satisfied, and God glorified. They could not find 
a channel through which free, rich, sovereign mercy 
and grace could flow out upon a rebellious, ruined 
world. The Bible alone could tell us of God's un- 
speakable gift, that He "so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son," sent Him into the world 
a suitable, sufficient Saviour of sinners; that in Him 
God provided a divine righteousness for men, pardon 
for the guilty and cleansing for the unclean. That 
there is life in Him for the condemned, mercy for 
the most sinful, hope for the most hopeless, love for 
the most unworthy, and grace so rich it can purify 
the polluted soul, put peace into the conscience, joy 
into the heart, and a crown of eternal life and glory 
upon the brow of the risen — all this the gift of God's 
love through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the 
Bible alone could tell. This is the manna God put 
Into His book, this golden urn, to feed the life of the 
soul in its wilderness journey; angel's food, heavenly 



14 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



bread. This is that part of the Bible man could have 
no share in making, no more than the Israelites had in 
making their manna. This is not discovered but 
revealed truth; no wisdom of man could ever find it 
out, no power of imagination could ever conceive of 
such love and mercy, or dream of such a way of 
life and happiness for the guilty and miserable of 
earth. Aaron only laid this up that their children 
might see the food that fed their fathers, but God, in 
His love, put the manna of His grace and truth, which 
came by Jesus Christ, into the imperishable golden 
urn of the Scriptures, not only that we might see the 
heavenly food that fed our fathers, but that we might 
feed on the same royal provision, and our children 
and children's children to the latest generation might 
eat of this bread of heaven and live forever. This is 
the precious treasure of our Bibles; it is this sets it 
in value above rubies, which would make us buy it 
at any price, but sell it at none; that which makes 
it the book of life to us. And no other vessel on earth 
contains manna so pure, so abundant and free as this 
golden urn of the Scriptures. "Come ye, buy and 
eat," etc. But there are. other golden vessels on 
earth that have manna. 

Second. The Gospel ministry is a golden pot that 
has manna; and it must have this to be a Gospel min- 
istry. The ministry may be learned, profound, poeti- 
cal and eloquent; may be philosophical, scientific and 
brilliant, yet only a golden vessel, but no manna in it. 
It may be gilded and bedizened with all the attrac- 
tions of art, architecture and music about it; it may 
be entertaining, popular and applauded, yet have no 
manna. The schools may furnish it with all the 
garniture of classic elegance in diction and rhetoric, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 1 5 

with the intellectual polish and penetration of the 
keenest dialectics, with all the art and power of 
trained oratory, and provision it with all the wealth 
and abundance of the soundest and profoundest the- 
ological knowledge; the schools may make such a 
golden vessel, but they can put no manna in it. Yet 
the ministry which feeds the life of souls and nourishes 
them to a pure, healthful, strong, Christian manhood, 
that conquers in the conflict with evil, must have 
Gospel manna in it. The ministry which feeds the 
Church of God, till, like the vine brought out of 
Egypt, it has boughs like the goodly cedar, and her 
shadow covers the hills, and the handful of corn on 
the mountain top shakes with fruit like Lebanon, the 
ministry that effects this must have in it the manna of 
Christ's divine righteousness for men, His cleansing 
blood, His quickening Spirit, His sustaining love and 
eternal glory. 

Peter preached at Pentecost and three thousand 
were converted, and in a few days we read of five 
thousand more, and such was the power of his min- 
istry and that of his fellow-apostles they were accused 
of "turning the world upside down." Why? Be- 
cause their ministry had manna in it. Paul's ministry 
moved all Asia and startled the Roman empire with 
the fear that he would empty all her heathen temples 
and starve her idol gods. Why? Because it had 
Christ, His truth and grace — had manna in it. What 
made the preaching of Chrysostom the light and 
power of Syria and Constantinople? It was not the 
rhetoric he learned of Libanius the Sophist, nor the 
Greek philosophy taught him by Andragathius ; it 
was not his personal magnetism, for his hollow r cheeks, 
sunken eyes, bald head, and small stature remind us 



j 6 THE GOLDEN POT. 

of Paul's description of himself, "in presence weak;" 
it was not because he was a golden mouthed orator, 
>but because his ministry was a golden vessel that had 
manna. For twelve years that strong, scholarly, 
Scotch orator, Chalmers, preached with all his intel- 
lectual energy and earnestness, yet himself confessed 
he knew of no souls renewed or nourished. He could 
hold his hearers as by a spell of Scotch witchery as 
he portrayed in gorgeous imagery the glory of the 
visible heavens and the wisdom and goodness that 
filled the earth; or while he denounced in language 
terrible and scathing the guilt and meanness of vice; 
but he brought neither life to the soul nor anything to 
feed its life. Why? Because his preaching was lack- 
ing in Gospel manna. That is shown by this fact, 
that soon after it became a Gospel ministry, Tron 
Church echoed with the gladdening birth-cry of souls. 
What made the preaching of Guthrie the glory of 
Edinboro? Not his picturesque word painting, rich 
imagery, brilliant rhetoric, and fascinating eloquence, 
but that his ministry was rich in Gospel manna. 
Spurgeon said, he wore no pulpit livery, used no deep- 
toned organ, with thundering sound, and no operatic 
choir, neither made any effort at oratory, yet no man 
in great London fed so many souls as he, both inside 
and outside his great tabernacle, because his ministry 
was a golden vessel with scarcely anything but Gospel 
manna in it. During the great awakening in England 
in the days of the Wesleys and Whitefield, and of 
Scotland in the days of Livingstone, William Burns, 
and McCheyne: and in our American revivals of the 
early part of this century under Whitefield, Edwards 
and the Tennants — and all revivals since — nothing dis- 
tinguished the preaching so much as the purity and 



THE GOLDEN POT. 17 

abundance of manna, from the great evangelical truths 
that run through all the symbols of the Levitical law, 
through all the predictions of inspired prophets, and 
culminated in their glory round the cross of Calvary, 
the truth as it is in Jesus, the pure manna of the 
Gospel. This was the fruit of the Church when 
driven into the wilderness in the valleys of Piedmont, 
and "on the Alpine Mountains cold," and in the glens 
of the Swiss cantons ; there the Waldenses, Albigenses 
and Vaduoi were fed and lived upon this manna from 
the golden urn of the ministry, by pastor Arnaud and 
other heroic leaders like him. It was this manna in 
the preaching of Wycklifte of the fourteenth century, 
Huss of the fifteenth century, and of Luther and 
Knox, that gave the dead to feel the power of resur- 
rection life through Jesus Christ. The men and 
women of all the heroic ages of the past who have 
mapped out civilized kingdoms on earth, reared 
thrones of righteous judgment for men, and built 
bulwarks against encroaching despotism, who have 
borne unflinchingly the assaults of civil and religious 
tyranny, sacrificed all, suffered and died for the honor 
of God, the freedom and welfare of man, have fed 
their life and strength on this Gospel manna. The 
men and women who have kept alive a heavenly hope 
on earth, who have preserved and perpetuated the 
Christian family, Sabbath, society and home, were 
led by Immanuel, and maintained their battle strength 
on the manna from the golden urn of his ministry. 
You may say, I seem to "magnify mine office." Be 
it so. The honor is the Master's, not the man or the 
minister's, for all the greatness, life, power and glory 
of this office and work is in proportion to the purity 
and abundance of this manna in it. Just in proportion 



18 THE GOLDEN POT. 

as Jesus and His atoning, cleansing blood; Jesus and 
His divine righteousness; Jesus and His sovereign 
mercy and matchless love, pervade the ministry, will 
it have power to bring life to souls dead in sin, and 
maintain and nourish Christian life on earth. Let 
the ministry have all the culture and power that can 
be had by the most careful intellectual training, by 
the help of literature and classical learning, of phil- 
osophy and science; let it be enriched with the 
soundest theological knowledge; let it be indeed a 
golden vessel, yet it will never convince, convert and 
save souls and evangelize and reform society unless 
ft be a golden vessel filled with Gospel manna. 

Third. Another vessel that has manna is the Chris- 
tian heart and life. When the Lord takes possession 
©f any one. He sends His quickening Spirit into the 
soul, then begins in it a spiritual divine life; He sheds 
abroad His love in the heart, anchors the soul in hope 
upon Himself, causes it to rejoice in His royal favor, 
feeds it upon His great and precious promises, sus- 
tains and strengthens it by His grace and fills it with 
heavenly good things. This is the manna with which 
He nTfeth the empty, and satisfieth the longing, 
hungry soul. And this only can fill and satisfy an 
immortal soul, and nothing else is worthy of such a 
being as was created and crowned by the wisdom and 
power of God. The mind and heart of man as it 
came from the hand of its Creator, and was endowed 
by Him, is the most glorious of His works on earth, 
and makes man a worthy prince regent of the material 
world. Matter, in any and all its combinations and 
refinements, bears no comparison to the soul in its 
excellency: even fallen, wretched and stained by sin, 
ihe soul is kingly in its wondrous powers of intellect, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 19 

reason and fancy, filled, strengthened and adorned 
with knowledge. The soul — the sinful soul — so far 
from being matter, or having any kindred or compari- 
son to matter, our Saviour sets in value above the 
whole material world: "What is a man profited if 
he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Such 
a soul so endowed in creation may be a golden vessel, 
but it has no manna to feed upon itself or with which 
to feed others. It contains nothing worthy of itself 
so long as it shuts out its Lord, and nothing can fill 
or satisfy it. Enlarge any sinful soul even beyond 
Solomon's heart, fill it with all his learning, wit and 
wisdom, enrich its life with all the royal provision, art, 
ornaments and delights of his wealth, yet, like him, it 
will at last cry out, "Vanity of vanities, saith the 
preacher; all is vanity." But this guilty soul increases 
incalculably in worth, becomes the most excellent 
being on earth, when it is washed in cleansing blood, 
adorned with the jewels of truth, filled and beautified 
with images of love; then it becomes the habitation 
of its Lord. It has then become a royal palace, 
abundantly supplied for a siege; and all the foes of 
earth and hell may encamp against it, and sit down 
in siege before it, but the Redeemer has become a 
wall of fire round about it, as well as the glory in the 
midst, and it can sit and sing songs of triumph within 
its provisioned fortress walls. Paul says such a soul 
can glory even in tribulation. It is like Luther's little 
bird, sitting on the bough at eventide, its head beneath 
its wing, leaves its cares with God. When darkness 
comes to such a soul, it is only as the coming of an 
Italian night, which reveals beauties and splendors 
that could not be seen at noon-day. Or, as Jean 
Ingelow sweetly sings: 



20 THE GOLDEN POT. 

When the sun withdraws his light, 

Lo! the stars of God are there; 
Present hosts, unseen till night, 

Matchless, countless, silent, fair. 

Children, oft when joy shines clear 

Lost is hold of hope divine, 
When the night of grief draws near, 

Then God's countless comforts shine. 

As its darkness deep outbars 

All things else, they start to view; 

Mercies, countless as the stars, 

Matchless, changeless, perfect, true. 

There is nothing so precious on earth as the golden 
urn of a heart filled with manna. But the manna is 
not put into a Christian heart to be used only for self. 
That which Aaron laid up was only to look at, but 
that in the heart is to feed self and others. As the 
Israelite was to gather manna for others beside him- 
self, so the manna of the heart is for others also. 
Daniel, the captive, became the wise and pure politi- 
cian, the upright statesman, the prime minister and 
president in a great empire, and fed his captive people 
on truth and hope, made their bondage easier and 
happier, and fed the soul of his royal master, Nebu- 
chadnezzar, on heavenly manna, as we hope and 
believe, to his eternal salvation. Why? Because he 
had manna in his heart and life. Hedly Vicars, in 
the Crimea, it is said, "sobered and steadied nigh four 
hundred of the drunkenmost and wildest men in the 
regiment." And there was not a better man or officer 
in the queen's service. Why? Because of the Gospel 
manna in his heart and life. When an important and 
perilous assault was to be made, the British general 



THE GOLDEN POT. 21 

found so many drunk in the regiment which had been 
ordered it was unfit for use; then he said, "Call Have- 
lock's saints; they never get drunk." Why was his 
regiment sober, faithful, praying, God-praising sol- 
diers? Because, as Lord Hardinge said, "General 
Havelock was every inch a soldier, and every inch 
a Christian." 

By the manna of her heart, Sarah Martin, of Great 
Yarmouth, fed the neglected, wretched prisoners of 
Yarmouth jail, not only the bread of earth, but of 
heaven, and turned the prison from an academy of 
crime to a school of religious instruction and praise, 
and began the great enterprise of prison reform in 
her native land. By the manna of her soul, Hannah 
Moore made Cowslip Green more famous than by all 
her writings. She and her sister, out of their Gospel 
filled urns, fed in Cheddar parish, and nine neigh- 
boring parishes, more than one thousand and seven 
hundred starving souls on the bread of life, and made 
what had been a stronghold of Satan a desirable 
dwelling place. We might mention others there, and 
numbers almost without limit, in our own country. 
But, as Paul says of his catalogue of worthies, "Time 
would fail me to tell," so it would me to tell of the 
bounteous work of manna-filled souls. A thousand 
such hearts and lives in any city of our land is a far 
more efficient power for good than any human asso- 
ciation ever devised, and will bring the Divine blessing 
upon the people among whom they labor. Such 
golden urns, filled with Gospel manna, have done 
more to reform our world, to purify, enrich and make 
earth happy, than all the classic poetry and eloquence 
of Athens and Rome, than all the sculpture and paint- 
ing of Greece and Italy, or all the schools of phil- 
osophy and science on earth. They have taught 



22 THE GOLDEN POT. 

human hearts happier, purer songs and sweeter music, 
than all the famous composers of Germany, France 
or Italy. The best teachers of melody and the true 
song-birds of earth are those who sing of Jesus and 
His love. You can covet no better gift on earth 
than a heart filled with this Gospel manna. Nothing 
can make you more useful or happy, than heart and 
life of Gospel manna full. 

Fourth. We mention now but one more place 
where manna is laid up for us, that is in "the Holy 
of Holies" above, the New Jerusalem, the golden urn 
of heaven. The soul is not to leave its provision 
behind, that provision which gave and sustained its 
life on earth, gave it strength and cheer and triumph 
on the way. O, no. The same provision awaits 
ahead in the "prepared place;" it only goes on to the 
fountain head, to the great, unfailing store-house of 
the royal city. And the chief attraction, the most 
precious possession, the joy and glory of that "Better 
Land," is its manna. It is not the pearly gates and 
jasper walls, garnished with all manner of precious 
stones, nor the sea of glass nor the pure golden streets, 
nor the throne of light, or the white robes and golden 
crowns, nor the harps and palms and alleluia songs — 
not all these bright and pillared glories are the chief 
attraction. These are but the precious material, and 
adorning of the casket, the mere outer-garniture and 
glory of the upper temple. It is not because loved 
friends, brothers and sisters long since gone, are there; 
not because mother and child, parents and children are 
there; all these are something of an attraction, yes, 
much, very much, God be praised, we shall know and 
be known there. But that which towers in loving 
radiance above all others is, He who is the manna 
of the place, the precious Redeemer, is there; the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 23 

King, Immanuel; and we shall "behold His face," 
"we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him." 
The Psalmist expresses the hope of the soul when he 
exclaims, "I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy 
likeness." "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" 
And Jean Ingelow sings it joyfully in these lines: 

When the vail is rent in twain 

Shall the present God appear; 
We shall see Him then, full, fain — 

Matchless, changeless, perfect, fair. 

His immediate presence and love will be manna to 
the soul, such as earth never tasted; so sweet and full 
the earthy portion will be almost forgotten. Paul 
says, "That is far better." That will make the eyes 
of the redeemed strong enough to look undestroyed 
and undazzled into the face of uncreated light and 
love; it will make the ears of the redeemed strong 
enough to bear the surging tides of Alleluia song, 
and the redeemed heart strong enough to bear the 
weight of eternal glory and joy. It will make re- 
deemed hands strong for all divine service, and re- 
deemed feet able to walk the valleys and tread the 
mountain tops of Immanuel's Land. The happiness 
of the redeemed soul may be to speed in joyful service 
through the unbounded universe of creative power, 
or it may be to walk or stand or sit in that kingly 
Presence; yet, everywhere and always that beloved 
Redeemer's presence and His love will be the happi- 
ness, strength and glory of the soul's eternal life. Oh, 
let your hearts and lives be golden urns, filled with 
the Gospel manna which the Lord provides and offers 
here; then hereafter you shall feed forever on the 
unfailing manna of His unveiled presence and love. 



II 

Christ Coming Over the Mountains. 

"The voice of my Beloved 1 Behold, He cometh leaping upon the 
mountains, skipping upon the hills, ," Song of Solomon ii: 8. 

Of all the books of the Bible, perhaps none has 
been so sadly misunderstood by the cultivated intellect, 
or perverted and abused by the corrupt heart, as this 
Song of Solomon. McCheyne speaks of two kinds 
of religionists as offended with this song; the first is 
he whose religion is all of the head, a mere masonry 
work of doctrines. He is offended because it con- 
tains no formal dogmatic statements upon which his 
heartless religion may be built. The second is he 
whose religion is all of the fancy, only emotional. He 
stumbles at the mysterious breathings of intimate but 
intelligent affection, which he cannot appreciate nor 
understand. But if one's religion be both in the head 
and heart, he not only receives the truth, but receives 
it in love; not only embraces by faith the doctrines 
of Christ, but has fellowship in love with Jesus, such 
a soul will see through the dramatic form of this poem 
the joyous intercourse of the Bride, the Church, with 
the Bridegroom, her Lord, the glad love breathings 
of the believing soul in communion with the beloved 
Redeemer. This poem is not one song, but several, 
all taking the dramatic form, and like the parables of 
our Lord, they present the most precious spirit ef 
truth, though veiled under poetic incident and im- 
agery. The business of the expositor and preacher 
is to take off the veil and expose the unconcealed 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



25 



beauty of truth, and the Saviour through the truth. 
This we shall try to do with the dramatic scene of 
the text. 

Look at the person here — a woman, a sweetheart, 
bride or wife, sitting in an Eastern kiosk or arbor, 
alone and desolate. Though surrounded with climb- 
ing vines and gilded lattice work, fragrant shrubbery 
and sparkling fountains, yet she is disconsolate! 
Why? Because her lover, her husband, is away be- 
yond the distant mountains, which in the last verse 
she calls "Bether," or the mountains of separation. 
She knows that rugged, precipitous heights, gaping 
gulfs, gloomy gorges, and frowning hills lie between 
them; she therefore fears that her beloved cannot 
come, or will be long in coming. But in the midst 
of her desponding thoughts a melodious sound breaks 
upon her ear. She knows it at once and exclaims, 
"The voice of my Beloved!" Rising in glad surprise, 
she looks through the lattice and exclaims, "Behold! 
He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping 
upon the hills!" Here the writer drops the curtain 
over their meeting and embrace, for it is a joy that 
no stranger may intermeddle with. 

Now let us unveil the persons and imagery. The 
woman, the Bride, alone in the arbor, is the Church, 
or the individual believer, at the time of the Lord's 
absence. The coming Beloved is the Divine Re- 
deemer, for whom His Church and people long. The 
mountains called "Bether," or separation, that lie 
between are every obstacle that prevents reconciliation 
between God and man, their fellowship and happiness 
together. The Beloved leaping upon the mountains, 
skipping upon the hills, presents Christ overcoming; 
triumphantly passing every difficulty, and coming for 



26 THE GOLDEN POT. 

the salvation, comfort and joy of His Church and 
people. Then we have three points. First. What 
are the intervening mountains and hills between God 
and His people? Second. How does Christ pass, 
remove or come over them? Third. Why does He 
thus come? 

First. What are these mountains of separation 
between God and men? The first is the mountain 
of guilt. Between the royal palace in heaven and 
the Garden of Eden there was neither mountain or 
hill ; the way was open, the King's highway, and God 
and man could walk together in it. But the sinful 
pair were driven out of Paradise, and with wicked 
hands men have reared a lofty mountain of guilt in 
the pathway of life. The Men of Babel could not 
build a tower that would reach unto heaven, but men 
have piled up a mountain whose top not only reaches 
above the clouds, but reaches the highest heaven and 
casts its dark shadow over all the earth. This was 
the first, and, at first, the only obstacle that separated 
God and the human race; the mountain of guilt. Its 
jagged sides man could not climb; nor scale its 
heights: and the just, holy King would not run a royal 
road around the base. Therefore the prophet says, 
"Your iniquities have separated between you and 
your God, and your sins have hid His face from you." 
There it stands, frowning on the earth, shutting out 
the face of God, blocking up the gate of Eden, and 
closing the door of heaven. It is the mountain of 
guilt. 

Second is the mountain of justice. Human hands 
built the mountain of guilt, but the Divine hand piled 
up the heights of justice. When man cast off alle- 
giance and love and opened rebellion against his 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



27 



Maker and King, heaven must be shut up, and the 
port of earth blockaded; therefore, the hand of justice 
stretched the mountain wall across the plains of earth 
and declared this rebellious province in a state of 
siege. The Psalmist's language is, "Thy justice is 
like mountains great." There it stands before God 
and men, stern, high and immovable. Who will dare 
its guarded passes, or try to scale its solid wall? 
Who can open a way around it or bow its lofty sum- 
mit? Man lies condemned, helpless and hopeless, at 
the base; and the inflexibly righteous King sits en- 
throned upon the summit; for justice and judgment 
are the foundation of His dwelling place. 

Third is the mountain of wrath. When Israel came 
into Canaan land, the half of her officers and priests. 
stood over against Mt. Gerizim, to pronounce bless- 
ings upon obedience. The other half over against 
Mt. Ebal, to pronounce curses upon disobedience. 
For when man sinned and rebelled against God, 
Divine wrath was kindled into a flame, and it became 
a mountain of fire, leaping angrily up to heaven and 
burning down to the lowest depths. Moses says it 
"burns to the lowest hell and setteth on fire the 
foundations of the mountains." When the offended 
majesty of heaven set His foot on Mt. Sinai, its top- 
was girdled with flame and the thunder voice of law 
and justice shook it to the base. For justice that 
would not be angry with rebellion and sin, would 
not be justice at all. In Revelation we are told of 
a burning mountain cast into the sea, but the sea did 
not quench it. The red tongues of flame, if let alone, 
could soon lick up the great billows of the deep and 
wrap this guilty world in ruinous conflagration. This 
flaming mountain was burning in the place of human 



28 THE GOLDEN POT. 

habitation, and who will dare to pass it, or who can 
pour out floods enough to quench its fires? For 
wrath has gone forth against the sons of men. 

Fourth is the mountain of darkness, says Isaiah 
Ix: 2. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of those whose 
"feet should stumble on the dark mountains." No 
light shines upon its black summit or down its rugged 
cavernous sides. From out its deep caves comes the 
smoke and blackness of darkness. Its awful shadow 
shuts out from earth the face of God, and lays blinding 
night on the hearts and minds of men. There gather 
the powers of darkness, its caverns are their retreat, 
and they ambush in its gloomy gorges, and cast their 
captives and slain into its gaping gulfs. The heathen 
world to-day is stumbling on through its deep shadow 
that lies all along their cheerless journey of life, and 
its pall hangs over thousands of hearts in Christian 
lands. Its dark shade makes men of understanding 
grope like the blind. Its horrid shadow makes the 
night of the death chamber and the gloom of the 
grave. All the gloom, and dread, and night, and 
despair of earth fall upon our journey of life from 
this dark mountain. "For, behold, the darkness shall 
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but 
the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall 
be seen upon thee," Isaiah lx: 2. Who can pass over 
it cr chase its night away? Philosophers, poets, 
scientists, human teachers and reformers have tried 
to dispel the darkness that lifts itself betwixt us and 
heaven, but in vain. Their feeble torches only re- 
vealed the darkness. 

We will not stop to speak of the hills of Provoca- 
tion, Unbelief, Pride and Self-righteousness, which 
sinful hands placed in the coming Redeemer's path. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 29 

But through such a mountain region there must be 
also gloomy forests, narrow, dangerous defiles, yawn- 
ing chasms, gulfs and fearful gorges, made more awful 
by the covering of darkness that hangs over them, 
for the lurid flames of wrath is all the light that falls 
upon this whole mountain road between heaven and 
earth. This is the region through which the Beloved 
must come. Those are the difficulties, obstacles, 
perils and foes He must encounter and overcome. 
What wonder the Bride is despairing? What wonder 
if the question troubles her heart, "Can He pass 
through this wilderness, cross these chasms, leap 
these gulfs, climb these mountains, conquer these foes 
and come to me? Can He?" What wonder if doubt 
and despondency bordering on despair enters the 
human heart when it sees the way between heaven and 
earth piled with such obstacles, great, insurmountable 
difficulties, appalling dangers? What wonder if it 
questions whether even the Son of God can come over 
this way? But thanks be to God, we know He can, 
we know He has come over this very region, as if it 
were an unobstructed plain. 

Second. How did Christ, the Beloved, come? If 
you should journey among the Alps, the guide would 
present you with a staff, to make sure your footing 
on the steep sides, to enable you to leap over the deep 
gaps that might open across your path. Without this 
you could not possibly climb the Jura or Mount 
Blanc. So with the cross as the staff of His hand, 
Jesus approached these mountains. But first He 
must consecrate, sanctify, give virtue and power to 
this cross by dying upon it. It must be more than 
a common mountain staff; it must be a magic wand, 
surpassing Moses' rod. He must do wondrous, 



3 o THE GOLDEN POT. 

miraculous things with it. So, "for the joy that was 
set before Him, He endured the cross, bore our sins 
in His own body on this tree." Nailed upon it as a 
sacrifice, He suffered there and died. Then rising 
from this death, He seizes the cross in His hand and 
•comes to the Mountain of Guilt; He smites it in His 
might, pours out the blood of His cross upon it and 
it melted in His presence. Then was fulfilled the 
language of the Psalmist and the prophets, "The hills 
melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, and the 
mountains flowed down at His presence," Isaiah lxiv: 
3. "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerub- 
babel thou shalt become a plain." There is no moun- 
tain of guilt, though it may rise to heaven in its 
height, and spread its wide base over all the earth, 
but one stroke of Jesus' cross will crumble it, and it 
will become molten under His blood. 

Passing this molten Mountain of Guilt, the Moun- 
tain of Justice rises before Him. It is a high moun- 
tain ; its top is above the clouds and its broad, immov- 
able base rests firmly on the earth. God built it, and 
His glory is enthroned upon it. No smiting can 
crumble this; justice must not be beaten down; no 
blood or tears can wash away the claims of law or 
righteousness. What can the Redeemer do here? 
Can He not pass it? No! It fills all the earth. Will 
it not bow before Him? No! Justice cannot bend 
even to the Son of God. Must He turn back and 
leave His Bride to perish alone? No. Around the 
base of this height runs the gulf of human despair. 
With His cross He filled this up, and piled above it 
a mountain of mercy, up to the clouds, through and 
above the clouds, up to the heavens and above the 
"heavens. Then was fulfilled the language of the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 31 

Psalmist, "Thy mercy is great above the heavens." 
Faithfulness and justice is through the clouds and up 
to the heavens. But mercy rejoiceth over judgment. 
The Mountain of Mercy overtops the Mountain of 
Justice, and with Kis cross He leaps over its summit. 
God's justice is honored, His holiness sustained, the 
place of His habitation unmoved, and leaping over 
this height, the Redeemer comes down the earth side 
of this mountain and lights upon the Mountain of 
Wrath. But its fire did not consume Him, nor its 
flame kindle upon Him. Up through the red billows 
that reached to its summit and rolled from its lava 
sides He trod. Then were His "feet like unto fine 
brass, as though they burned in a furnace." But as 
He poured upon it the blood of His cross and the 
tears of His atoning agony, its flame ceased and its 
burning coals were utterly quenched. This is He 
who, at the prayer of Moses, put out the fire that 
burned in the midst of the children of Israel. This is 
He who gives to those that work righteousness power 
to "quench the violence of fire." This is the one like 
the Son of man that walked with His holy children in 
the blazing furnace at Babylon. And as His sacred 
feet leaped up the scorched and blackened sides of 
this Mountain of Wrath, it crumbled into a cold and 
ashen heap, upon which sprung up verdure, fruits and 
flowers, as He passed over it, and sprinkled forth the 
showers of mercy. The fiercest flames of Divine 
anger cannot burn against the Gethsemane sweat 
and tears, and Calvary-blood, of the Son of God. 
Then He leaped upon the Mountain of Darkness. 
He shed all over its dark sides the light of His love- 
lit and victorious face. The glowing arrows of light 
entered all its gloomy defiles and black caverns. He 



32 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



chased its shadow, and night, and horrid despair 
before Him, and in the blaze of His glory, which 
illumined all the mountain, He saw the powers of 
darkness; He pursued them over the ragged sides, 
through the gorges into the caves of night. He 
overtook them, overpowered them, took them captive, 
and cast them, bound with chains of darkness, into 
the bottomless gulf, where their slain and captives 
were found. Then did He lead captivity captive, and 
as He turned His victorious face from the summit of 
this mountain, the whole earth was lightened with 
His glory, and lo! behind Him all the region over 
which He passed had become a plain. Then was ful- 
filled the language of Isaiah, "Every valley shall be 
exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made 
low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the 
rough places plain, and there shall be in the desert a 
highway for our God." For the joy of this victory 
He endured the cross; then as a rejoicing conqueror 
He came, skipping upon the hills and leaping upon 
the mountains. The greatest obstacles were no 
longer barriers, insurmountable difficulties disap- 
peared from before Him. As a strong man, a man of 
Divine strength, He came from his heavenly chamber, 
rejoicing to run His race, refreshed with the wine of 
love to God and love to man, He passed over the 
course with shoutings, and stopped not until He 
embraced His lovely and disconsolate Bride. This 
is Jesus, the conquering Redeemer. This is Jesus, 
the Beloved of the believing soul, the Husband and 
Lord of the Church, the waiting and longing Bride. 

Third. Why did He come? First He came to 
exhibit His own glory and the glory of His Father. 
Jesus rejoiced in the work given Him to do, because 



THE GOLDEN POT. 33 

He saw in its accomplishment a matchless display of 
His divine glory. He saw that a victory over the 
battle set in array against Him, a defeat of all the 
hosts of foes to God and man, a triumph over all 
obstacles, would spread over the earth such a sheen 
of glory as nothing else could, reveal rightly the divine 
character, fill heaven with joyful shouting. There- 
fore, as difficulties were overcome, foes beaten down, 
and His triumphal march continued, every Divine 
perfection was glorified; truth was vindicated, law 
was magnified, justice was honored, holiness was 
crowned, mercy was satisfied, and love was enthroned. 
Therefore, the first note of the angel's song over 
Bethlehem was, "Glory to God in the highest!" It 
was delight in this, joy for this ascription of praise 
to God, that gave Him such strength, that made Him 
leap upon the mountains and skip upon the hills. The 
glory of the Son and of the Father never was, never will 
be, never can be, so displayed in anything else as in 
this redemption work and conflict and victory of the 
Son of God. Creation's glory pales under the inef- 
fable brightness of complete salvation from sin, eternal 
life and happiness bestowed on guilty men. This is 
the glory that excelleth, and for this reason He came. 
In the work of creation and providence could be seen 
the glory of wisdom, power and goodness. In Divine 
law and its administration could be seen the glory of 
holiness, justice and truth; but in the work of Re- 
demption, love and mercy blended with all these royal 
gems to garland and crown with matchless glory the 
cross. 

2d. He came for the sake of His Church, His 
chosen and beloved people on earth. The earth is in 
a state of siege, it is a land of condemnation and 



34 



THE GOLDEN P0\ 



wrath. His poor imprisoned, sinful, helpless, hope- 
less people are down there in the vale of death. The 
cry of distress could reach His ear over all the vast 
distance of mountain region that lay between; from 
the far away glory His eye could look upon the help- 
less misery and guilt of sin. Then were His "delights 
with the sons of men." Love like His could overleap 
any obstacle; such zeal could pass through any diffi- 
culties. True, the way is long and steep and hard 
and perilous; the mountains are high and rugged, 
and dark and dangerous ; the enemies are many, cruel 
and mighty; but love is strong, enduring and un- 
daunted; zeal will not be quenched; it burns in the 
redeeming heart. The travail of His soul must be 
satisfied. Divine compassion will not turn away from 
misery, even guilty misery. While we were yet sin- 
ners, because we were sinners, the Beloved came to 
wash out guilt with the blood which the sword of 
justice would shed, to stay the wrath, subdue the 
enemies, heal the hurt, and chase fear, terror, dark- 
ness and misery from earth. When the great Captain 
of our salvation died on Calvary, our enemies died 
with Him; for He conquers the earth through His 
death. He turned away and passed by the prison 
house of fallen and wretched angels — Divine wisdom 
only knows why, sovereign love only knows how — 
and cast His heart upon the earth, for the sake of His 
people. These mountains had never been crossed 
or these hills removed if Christ had not had a people 
beyond them that He loved. But He could not hold 
His peace even in heaven, could take no rest; He 
would come through fire and water, for His heart was 
in the earth. Heaven is not less glorious, but love 
has a call from below and can make itself a habitation 



THE GOLDEN POT. 35 

there among men; so He came to His Church, His 
Bride, exclaiming, 

"This is My rest, here still I'll stay, 
For I do love it well." 

3d. He came to beget love and kindle it to a flame 
in the hearts of those He loved. "Herein is love, 
not that we loved God, but that He loved us. We 
love Him because He first loved us." Love, and 
love alone, begets love; it creates in its own likeness. 
Gibbets, thumbscrews and racks may crush life out of 
the heart, but not love. The iron rod of the law 
may strike water out of the rock, but not love; the 
sword of justice may strike fire from the flinty soul, 
but not love. All the power of heaven, earth and 
hell combined could not compel love by mere force; 
therefore, when the Almighty and the all-wise One 
would woo, win and redeem the earth, He made the 
provisions of love; He carried out the arrangements 
of love; He flung out from the battlement of heaven 
the banner of love over the rebellious world; He gave 
to the guilty a conquering exhibition, an irresistible 
display of love. He came Himself down to fallen, 
guilty, wretched man. The hand of love lifted the 
fallen up, the finger of love opened the blind eyes, the 
finger of love unstopped deaf ears, the hand of love 
poured oil and wine into painful wounds and gave 
food and drink to the famishing. The voice of love 
spoke pardon and peace to the heart of guilt and 
misery, when the magic wand of love touched the 
dead soul, it lived and felt through all its awakened 
powers the inflowing of the sweetest love and happy 
endless life. All God's arrangements and redemption 
work is to implant and turn human love back to 
neaven. We have good reason for wondering why 



36 THE GOLDEN POT. 

all do not love the redeeming Jesus. Why is it? 
Because they shut their eyes to the exhibition of 
Divine love; they turn their hearts away from the 
touch of heaven's love; their souls refuse to believe 
the love God has to them. If they would lift up their 
eyes to the opening heaven that lets through the Son 
of God; if they would see on Calvary the atoning Son 
of God dying with love; if they would lift their heads 
and behold Him leaping over the crumbling, melting 
mountain, and skipping on the tottering hills in the 
glad great joy of His redeeming love, their hearts 
would not refuse to love and trust Him. To win this 
love and through it make happy a people on earth, 
He came. 

4th. He came to put hope and joy into desolate and 
despairing hearts. During the siege of Lucknow, 
the English and Christian missionaries shut up there 
were fast sinking into despair. The engineers told 
them the sappers and miners of the foe were fast 
undermining the walls, that twenty-four hours would 
end the scene, and they must perish amid heathen 
horrors. On every side death stared them in the face, 
no human skill could avert it longer. Jessie Brown, 
wife of a Scotch corporal, overcome with fatigue, 
and hopeless, heartsick, wrapped her plaid about her 
and lay down amid the roar of cannon, to rest, if not 
sleep. Lying thus upon the ground, a well known 
sound struck upon her ear. She sprang upon her 
feet, a light of intensest joy and hope beamed upon 
her face. With clasped hands she exclaimed, "Dinna 
ye hear it! Dinna ye hear it? I'm no dreamin'; it's 
the slogan of the Highlanders! Hark to the slogan! 
We're saved! We're saved!" Her Scottish ears had 
caught the music of the victorious pibroch as Have- 
lock's Highlanders marched through defeated enemies 



THE GOLDEN POT. 37 

to the fort. Surely not unlike this, but more glad- 
dening and glorious far, the angel herald of the Gospel 
on the plains of Bethlehem to a guilty and helpless 
race, and millions of desolate, despairing hearts have 
leaped for joy under the sound of it, proclaiming 
"peace on earth, good will to men." It is the music 
of heaven's triumphant pibroch sounding out over 
the earth, it is the Redeemer's victorious slogan as 
He overthrows the legions of hell, and it has brought 
the deepest joy and the brightest hope this imperiled 
world has ever known or felt. Out over the hills and 
mountain tops of earth it is singing and sounding its 
glad tidings yet. Open your Bibles and read the 
words set to this music, "Behold, I bring you glad 
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for 
unto you is born this day in the city of David a 
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." "Behold, He 
cometh leaping upon the mountains, and skipping 
upon the hills." If you would enter into this joy, lift 
up your hearts and cry, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come 
quickly." For to those who look for Him will He 
come a second time "without sin unto salvation." 

Christ came first in personal, visible presence, to 
serve man amidst ignominy and suffering; passed 
through the furnace of Divine wrath and hid Himself 
in the grave, the victim and sacrifice for sin. He 
comes now by His word and Spirit and takes posses- 
sion of the guilty soul, to deliver it from sin. But 
to those who look for Him He will come again; His 
snming feet shall rejoice upon the hills and mountain 
tops of earth; they shall reel and melt beneath Him, 
and every eye shall see Him. If you would greet 
with joy that coming, then lift up your hearts now 
and cry, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly," and 
take possession of my soul. 



III. 

Peter's Peril. 

"Lord, save me," Matthew xiv: 30. 

Why did our blessed Lord ever bring about this 
thrilling incident? Why move the mind of Peter to 
attempt this walk on the waves? May it not have 
been that he might give to the world an illustration 
of the necessity, authority and certainty of salvation, 
that would flash truth upon the unbelieving soul, like 
light bursting forth in the midst of darkness, and 
give to the perishing the Gospel in three short words, 
"Lord, save me?" You need not make broad phylac- 
teries upon which to write before the world that you 
are a sinking sinner trusting in a Saviour — it can be 
graven on a prodigal's finger ring. You need not 
make long prayers and confession to tell the Lord 
your peril — these three words tell Him enough. 
Some are prone to value prayers by their length — they 
cannot even quote this correctly, but add the words, 
"I perish," which are not there, and not needed. 
Peter said about all he had time to say, and all that 
was necessary. You should never complain that you 
cannot remember the Gospel. Can you forget these 
three words? Enshrine them in your heart and 
ponder the priceless truths they convey, and you 
have the Gospel in its greatest and most comforting 
truths. If all the Bible were lost except these three 
short words, put into the mouth of a perishing sinner 
by inspiration, the world might still have the Gospel. 
Jehoiakim may mutilate the roll with his sacrilegious 



THE GOLDEN POT. 39 

knife; Antiochus may rend aud burn the law; the Jews 
and Voltaires of the world may destroy the life of 
Christ; Rome may chain it in the cell of her monks, 
but before they can rob us of the Gospel they must pluck 
those inspired words from the believer's heart. These 
contain the truth which types and shadows, sacrifice 
and offering, prophecy and parables, crucifixion and 
resurrection, have all been employed in setting forth, 
the truth of man hopelessly perishing and Christ a 
present, able, willing Saviour. 

Peter's condition is that of every individual of the 
sinful human race, and this prayer is for them. 

First. What is asked for? Salvation. 

Second. Of whom asked? The Lord. 

Third. For whom asked? For me. 

Salvation implies danger. There can be no salva- 
tion where there is no danger present or threatening. 
Why at this time did Peter cry out for deliverance? 
Because he saw the billows rolling upon him, and 
he was sinking in the waters. At another time, on 
the sea of Galilee, why did the disciples wake Jesus 
from His sleep, crying, "Lord, save us, we perish?" 
Because yawning gulfs were opening around them 
and the wind was tilting their frail ship on the top- 
pling waves. 

So there is great danger not only threatening but 
present, from which you need to be saved. You are 
already in the slavery of sin, and your fetters are 
becoming stronger and your bondage more grievous 
and hopeless every day; more grievous because more 
exacting, and more hopeless because you have less 
sense of its oppression. The neck of the ox soon 
becomes calloused and he ceases to twinge and give 
back from the pressure of his load, for the yoke has 



4 o 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



ceased to gall. After many years of bondage, the 
slave partially forgets the sweets of liberty, the weight 
of his chains and the misery of degradation. So with 
man in the service of sin. At first he must be baited 
with strong temptation to transgress, and after com- 
mission feels himself wronged in his wages and robbed 
of his happiness, but some little kindness of his master 
and indulgence of his desires wins his affections, and 
he forgets the wrong and robbery of his oppressor and 
becomes more contented with his wages, until at 
length, like the Hebrew servant, he says, "I love my 
master and will not go out free." He drinks in sin 
like water — it has become his delight and his pleasure, 
not his labor. 

But is it true that any man who has once breathed 
the air of freedom, used his limbs for himself and 
walked at liberty, earned wages to put into his own 
purse, embraced his wife and children and called them 
his own — it is true that he can ever love and wed 
bondage that takes them all away? No, he cannot! 
The wind that blew on the mountains of freedom is 
around him yet, and the shell still sings of the sea. 
But those born in slavery may. They have never 
known the bounding joys, the sunny skies and fra- 
grant flowers of freedom, and they must be persuaded 
of the truth before they will desire liberty. 

So it is with you. You were born in slavery, your 
mother was a slave before you, and the law of sin 
is just the law of slavery, "partus sequiturventrcn," and 
you have followed the condition of your mother and 
must be convinced of sin's thralldom before you will 
seek salvation. And be assured that no tyrant ever 
used subject so cruelly — you must be untiring and 
almost sleepless in its service, nor ever complain of 



THE GOLDEN POT. 4 1 

the burden and toil. And the torture of the whip that 
plows through the naked flesh, and the pain of the 
salt that dries up the blood and heals the wound of the 
slave, is little to the scorpion stings of conscience, 
and the lash of remorse that you may feel; it robs 
you not of wages, and free limbs, and knowledge, and 
wife and children only, but it robs you of manhood, 
and honor, and peace, and happiness, and the love 
of God, and heaven, and are these not worth more 
than all others, worth more than the manly step and 
uplifted head of free limbs, and the throbbing pleasure 
of untroubled earthly love, more than all that earthly 
liberty can give? Of all others, this slavery takes 
away the most, requires the most, and gives the least. 
Both believer and unbeliever, what need we have to 
plead, "Lord, save us," from the slavery of sin! 

Again, you are in danger of enslavement by the 
world. To the young she is offering her pleasures* 
saying, "Come, eat of my bread and drink the wine 
which I have mingled." Her fame, wealth, friend- 
ship, power and glory, are all spread out before you, 
saying, "All these will I give you if you will fall down 
and serve me," and before you are hardly aware you 
are toiling like a galley slave only for the bread which 
perisheth, and cringing under the despotic sceptre of 
the world. God says, "Serve Me." You look at the 
world; it frowns its tyrant brow and says, "No," and 
you refuse. The world says, "Do this," and you do it. 
God says, "Do this," and you tell Him you are afraid. 
What would the world say of me if I were to throw 
my whole soul into religion — if I should spurn the 
competition of its friendship, wealth and honor, when 
they oppose duty and the love of God ! 

O believer and unbeliever! if you would not be the 



4 2 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



most pitiful, cowardly, abject slave that ever cringed 
beneath the rod, plead for salvation from the slavery 
of the world, the slavery of its offerings and opinions. 

Again, you are enslaved by Satan. He has ever 
claimed and received service from you, though it 
never was his right. Both law and justice forbade 
you to give it, but instead of boldly confronting the 
usurper, and challenging his claim, and resisting his 
demands, you have yielded, and yielded again and 
again, and now he is enlarging his power over you, 
and riveting your fetters. Every unlawful lust in- 
dulged, every unholy desire gratified, every unclean 
affection cherished or duty omitted, or wicked deed 
performed, or sin committed, is only adding link 
after link to the long, heavy chain that binds you 
under his oppression. You have exchanged the easy, 
happy, profitable service of God for fruitless, miser- 
able, degrading slavery. As the Israelites built up 
the kingdom and glory of Pharoah, so you are increas- 
ingthe wealth and piling up pyramids to commemorate 
the kingdom and glory of Satan. What an accursed 
throne you are sustaining, and what a vile, unholy 
kingdom you are strengthening! This is now the 
most ungrateful, grievous and disgraceful slavery, 
but if you are not saved from it soon, it will become 
most horrible and endless. The chain that binds you 
will become white with hot agony, but not melt, and 
the iron house of bondage will become red with 
burning wrath, but never consumed. 

Are you content to forsake the service of such a 
God as you have and endure now the slavery of such 
a tyrannical master and hereafter suffer his taunts 
and tortures forever? Hide not this truth from your- 
selves, that you are the slaves of Satan and need 
deliverance. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 43 

Again, you are in danger of the curse of the law. 
You know you have broken the infinitely holy law 
of God, which was delivered with such terrific 
splendor from Sinai that Moses, the favorite and 
friend of God, who was with Him in the mount forty 
days and nights, said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." 
This law, which was literally clothed with fire and 
armed with thunder bolts when delivered to man, 
you have broken; and Paul says, "Cursed is every one 
who continueth not in all things written in the book 
of the law, to do them." This you know you have 
not done, though you may not have transgressed so 
boldly and flagrantly as some. This will not relieve 
you — if you have offended in one point this is sufficient 
to incur the curse. And what is that curse? "The 
soul that sinneth it shall die." It is spiritual and 
eternal death. But the hardest thing of which to 
convince man is the fearfulness of this curse, for of 
the first part they are insensible, and of the second, 
language can convey no adequate idea, and the 
imagination can form no fit image or conception. 
Unbelieving sinner, the first part is now in effect upon 
you, you are now spiritually dead, there is no spiritual 
breath, no pulse, no activity within you. You may 
be living, healthy, strong, active, in the pursuits of 
life, but in the law of holiness and the service of God 
you are not. You may love money, and pleasure, 
and beauty, and friends, but your heart does not love 
God. God may throw around you day after day 
arms of love and mercy to embrace you, but you never 
return the embrace. You can gather an earthly 
friend to your bosom in affection and weep over his 
injuries, but you cannot embrace a Saviour joyfully 
in the arms of faith and love, nor shed a tear over the 



44 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



injuries you have done to God's law and honor. True, 
you may love a god of your corrupt desires — a god 
shorn of his glorious justice and robbed of his holi- 
ness; but you do not love the God of heaven, the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The paralysis 
of spiritual death has struck lifeless your every affec- 
tion for such a God as this. But deplorable and 
miserable as this state is, a punishment far more terri- 
ble is fast approaching. This is eternal death in hell. 
Here you will continue spiritually dead, you will have 
no will nor desire to love God, but the soul will then 
be keenly alive to the loss of His love and mercy; 
it will be keenly alive to the need of His favor and 
friendship ; but it will be pierced through and through 
with the horrid conviction that this can never be 
secured, that God's mercy and love are gone, gone 
forever, that His help, favor and friendship are lost, 
irretrievably lost. It may weep burning tears in a 
Judas repentance, but never to be forgiven; it may 
wail, but can never hope, and fearful will be its writh- 
ings under the storm of taunts and mockeries of devils 
who whispered honied lies into its ear on earth; but 
most impotent will be its rage against its tormentors. 
Mercy offered will not then be forgotten, proffered 
forgiveness will there be remembered, despised love 
will there be remembered, and the soul will be filled 
with a condemning sense of guilt and reproach and 
maddening remorse; and most horrible of all this, this, 
and more than all this, that only the lost can ever 
know, must continue unmitigated through eternity. 
"Oh! who can dwell with devouring fire, who can 
dwell in everlasting burnings?" Charity is pained to 
preach this awful truth, but love forbids that it should 
be hidden from you. Fast as your pulse beats and 



THE GOLDEN POT. 45 

your suns rise and set, this danger is hurrying swiftly 
upon you. Then truly you have need to cry, "Lord, 
save me." 

But worst of all, you are in danger of the wrath 
of God. This overtops every other danger. Before 
this, all that has been told dwindles into nothing, is 
overshadowed and almost forgotten in this deepest 
pang of woe, the wrath of a God of love. His wrath 
would be more tolerable if He were vengeance or 
malice or only justice, but He is love. The wrath of 
forgiving, saving love — this apparent solecism con- 
tains the most awful truth. Oh! how would the judg- 
ment be shorn of its terrors if Jesus was not to sit on 
the throne, if Jesus was not to pronounce the sentence, 
and methinks hell would be robbed of more than half 
its torment if God should only banish the soul there to 
the taunts and mockery of devils and the gnawings of 
reproach and remorse, then turn and never look at 
it again. But the breath of God's wrath kindles its 
fires and boils all its deeps of misery. And "can you 
grapple with the vengeance of God?" What can 
you do when He "girds Himself with strength and 
clothes Himself with wrath?" He asks you the 
question Himself by Ezekiel xxii: 14: "Can thy heart 
endure or can thy hands be strong in the days that 
I shall deal with thee?" Will you not fear the frown 
that darkens His brow, nor the lightning of His eye 
when His wrath is kindled? What insanity possesses 
men who are unconcerned, when such danger is trav- 
elling upon them with fleeter step than the flying 
steed; nor will once cry out, "Lord, save me," save 
me from "the wrath to come, the wrath to come?" 

Again, you are in danger of losing heaven. This is 
the salvation that Christ came to offer. Earth has no 



4 6 THE GOLDEN POT. 

redemption that can compare with it, no deliverance 
like it — to save from the slavery of sin and the world, 
the bondage of Satan, the curse of the law, the remorse 
and misery of hell and the wrath of God, to all the 
glory and endless joy of heaven. Infinitely glorious 
salvation — is it not a joyful sound? What wonder 
the angels sped on eager wings to the vale of Bethle- 
hem, saying, "I bring you glad tidings of great joy?" 
What wonder that joy throbs in the bosom of angels 
over one sinner that repenteth. And shall the human 
heart alone be unstirred by it, man alone rejoice not? 
Shall angels turn away from this little flock and hear 
no one cry, "Lord, save me," with such a salvation as 
this? Oh, remember, my friends, it is such a salvation 
as this that is asked for! Is it not worth the asking, 
think you? 

The second question is, Of whom is this salvation 
asked? "Lord, save me." 

If you are not calloused by the great sin of this 
nation, your heart could not but have ached with pity 
had you stood with me in the slave mart, and have 
seen the young girl trembling before her cruel dealer, 
her fair, young face, where but a few drops of Afric's 
warm blood mingled in her veins, only more inflamed 
the voluptuous and brutal bidders for her beauty. 
But one man in that place looked on with a face 
working with compassion. She read the feelings of 
that heart, she felt that it was full of pity. "Oh, sir," 
says she, "buy me, please buy me!" But with a strug- 
gling heart he turned away. He was not rich enough 
to buy the poor captive, neither could he break the 
tyrant's iron laws that fettered her there. And should 
he tell her of the land of liberty and bid her flee, he 
could not rub out her track from the bloodhounds' 



THE GOLDEN POT. 47 

scent, nor restrain the scarce less ruthless marshals, 
which the cursed fugitive law has set upon her. He 
had not power to save the poor slave — she needed 
a mighty deliverer, she needed a Redeemer who could 
pull down thrones, change laws and times, open prison 
doors, rend iron fetters and break bars of steel in 
pieces. 

And such a Saviour do we need. Our captors are 
mighty, our oppression heavy, our chains strong, our 
enemies many. No mortal arm can save us, no 
earthly wealth can purchase our redemption, it is too 
great a price; but "salvation is of the Lord." He is 
a Saviour and a mighty one; in Him all fulness dwells, 
all fulness of power to save. He breaks in pieces 
mighty men and tramples earthly thrones in the dust 
to save His people. He, and He only, can do all you 
need for salvation. You need redemption from the 
law, the infinitely holy law which you have trans- 
gressed, whose curse not only now lies on you, but 
hangs over you in "wrath to come." Well, Jesus 
was "made under the law, to redeem them that are 
under the law." It claimed obedience, perfect, cheer- 
ful and in love. This Jesus gave, nor failed in the 
least, from the manger cradle in Bethlehem to the 
dying cry of the cross; this penetrating, holy law 
could find no fault nor flaw in Him; His heart never 
grew weary, His affection never decreased, His desire 
never turned aside, His will never rebelled, but He 
loved the holy law He came to honor, His life was all 
fair, there was no spot in it, the whole page was 
stainless and pure, and such obedience satisfied the 
law. 

But the law claimed also a penal satisfaction from the 
sinner, but this, too, Jesus took upon Himself. He 



4 8 THE GOLDEN POT. 

gathered up all its infinite demands, He bared His 
heart to endure all its righteous displeasure; the rod 
of this law smote Him pn the head, the sword of 
justice entered His soul, and pierced His hands and 
feet, majesty stripped the arm of vengeance and 
washed its dishonor away in Jesus' blood; the clouds, 
and darkness, and rending thunders of Sinai, gathered 
around the cross and over the soul of the dying 
Saviour, but when He cried, "It is finished," then 
that searching, fiery law had no more to claim; its 
insulted honor was cleared, its majesty exalted, and 
its power to condemn forgiven sinners died with Jesus 
on the cross. Therefore, says Paul, "You are not 
under the law," "for Jesus Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." 
The precious blood of Jesus was the wealth which 
paid the price of your redemption and broke the power 
of a condemning law. You want to be justified at 
the bar of God — not justified for your sins; this can 
never be — but accepted as if you had never sinned, 
treated there as perfectly righteous. Then stand up 
there and hear Christ say, "Father, he has My spotless 
robe on; I stand for him; I gave him My righteous- 
ness ; He is before Thee just, I am perfectly innocent — 
wilt Thou not justify him?" And sweeter than all 
earth's melodies is the reply, "Thou art fair, My love, 
thou art fair; there is no spot in thee." 

But though the law may be honored and you 
justified before God in His Son, yet you want more 
than this for your salvation. Your sins must be par- 
doned. This, too, Jesus, and only Jesus, can do. 
"The Son of man hath (yet) power on earth to forgive 
sins." Whatever your guilt may be, there is forgive- 
ness with Him. "The blood of Jesus cleanseth from 



THE GOLDEN POT. 49 

all sin." His blood can blot out the record, though 
it may be written in the memory of God. "Though 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as the 
wool." "He will abundantly pardon." He bent in 
pity over the adulterous woman, saying, "Neither do 
I condemn thee." As Mary Magdalene washed His 
feet with tears and wiped them with her hair, He 
said, "Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee." 
He bade Ananias say to bloody Paul, "Brother Saul, 
arise and wash away thy sins, calling upon the Lord." 
He said to the dying thief upon the cross, "This day 
shalt thou be with Me in paradise." 

There is none who hears of Jesus whose sins may 
not be forgiven, except those who wilfully and obstin- 
ately refuse. It is said that the highest mountains 
may be hidden under the waves of the sea. So there 
is no mountain of sin that may not be buried in the 
ocean of redeeming mercy. Your guilt cannot rise 
higher than the deeps of Jesus' love. Truly said 
Joseph Caryl, "None can pardon so freely, none so 
fully, none so continually, none so eternally, none so 
indifferently, whether in respect of sinners or sin, as 
Thou dost. It is all one to Thee what the sins are 
or whose they are, so they come to ask Thy pardon." 
There is no exception in the pardon proclaimed from 
Jesus' throne. Says John, "He is the propitiation 
for our sins, not for ours only, but the sins of the 
whole world." He saves and forgives "Jews and 
Greeks, Scythian and barbarian, bond and free." 

But, again, you need your heart made alive and its 
uncleanness washed away. This also can Jesus do. 
His word is, "I am the resurrection and the life, and 
if any man believe in Me, though he were dead, yet 



50 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



shall he live." Your heart may now be dead to the 
love of God and holy desires, but, as He did Lazarus, 
He can call it from the tomb and bid the grave clothes 
be taken off — He can give it tears to weep over a 
broken law before an offended God, and bind its arms 
of affection around a loving Redeemer. But what can 
wash its filth away, the defilement of its sin? Nitre 
and much soap cannot do it, nor the blood of a thou- 
sand lambs slain upon the altar — nothing but the 
blood of the Lamb of God, applied by the Holy Spirit. 
There is virtue in the blood of Christ to whiten, that 
no fuller's skill on earth can equal. This river of life 
can wash the filth of the soul away, can fill it with 
thoughts of purity, with desires of holiness, and 
beautify it with images of love. 

But, again, you want a Saviour who can conquer 
all your foes. Evil and temptation hide in your own 
heart; temptations, wicked men and devils, besiege 
you without; but all these Jesus can overcome. He 
subdues all opposition within you by His word and 
Spirit, and by the loving invitations and glorious 
promises of the Gospel He woos and wins your heart 
to His side in the conflict. And what are wicked 
men and devils before Him? "By the blast of God 
they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils are they 
consumed." By the mouth of Isaiah He says, "Who 
would set the briars and thorns against Me in battle? 
I would go through them, I would burn them to- 
gether." Has Satan ever won the day on any field 
with Christ? He was defeated in heaven and ban- 
ished to the darkness and chains of hell, and on the 
pinnacle of the temple, in the wilderness and on the 
mountain, he was foiled again and again, and even in 
the hour and power of darkness in Gethsemane, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 5 1 

though groans burst from His heart and sweat and 
blood stained His raiment, yet He overcame at last, 
and on the morning of the third day He broke the 
dungeon bars, triumphed over death and him that 
has the power of death, and now His language is, "O 
death! I will be thy plague. O grave! I will be thy 
destruction." "I am alive forevermore, and have the 
keys of hell and of death." 

And now He goes forth with the bow in His hand 
and the crown on His brow, conquering and to con- 
quer, and "His chariots are twenty thousand and 
thousands of angels strong," for He is the Lord of 
hosts. Who shall contend with such a host, or who 
shall fear that follows His banner? For He is a 
Saviour and a mighty One. Says David, "The 
mighty Lord is on my side, I will not be afraid." 
Men were inspired with courage who carried Caesar, 
and shall men fear who carry Jesus? Men followed 
fearlessly the standard of Alexander and Napoleon, 
and shall men in the conflict of life follow with doubt 
and fear the banner of Jesus, upon whose blood- 
stained vesture is written, "King of kings and Lord 
of lords?" 

Such a Saviour is yours, and such an one only can 
save you from all your enemies. 

But, again, you need a saviour who can appease the 
^rath of God. You must be reconciled unto God 
and God unto you. But what advocate will you send 
to this just and holy King? What intercessor? Who 
can fill his mouth with arguments and plead with all 
the eloquence of love before God? Who can inter- 
cede with Him and prevail? There must be no failure 
here or all is lost! When the rebels of Calais ap- 
peared before King Edward the Third with ropes 



52 THE GOLDEN POT. 

about their necks, who pled for their lives? Was it 
his favorite courtier, or cabinet counselor? Nol 
None of these lay near enough to the king's heart. 
But the queen must plead on bended knees; only the 
wife of his bosom could prevail. Such a pleader do 
you need in heaven, one who is near the heart of God, 
and do you think Jesus will fail you here? Into 
whose lips "grace is poured," "who spake as never 
man spake?" God's beloved Son, who lay in the 
Father's bosom? Think you that God has forgotten 
the great sacrifice that began in the manger and 
ended on the cross; that He has forgotten one thorn 
that pierced His feet on the road from Bethlehem 
to Calvary; or that He has forgotten one groan of 
Gethsemane, or buffet of the soldiers, or agony of the 
crucifixion? Does He not know how, in all this, 
sin was condemned and holiness and justice infinitely 
magnified? And shall Jesus fail as He pleads for 
sinners with the arguments of Calvary in His hands, 
saying, "All this I did for them. Father, is Thy jus- 
tice not cleared, is Thy holiness not exalted, is Thy 
character not glorified? Father, forgive them." 
Glad music to the ear of faith is the reply, "In Thee 
I am well pleased. All Mine are Thine, and Thine are 
Mine." 

Christ is just such a pleader as you need, and what- 
ever may be your guilt, He can prevail for you. True, 
you have rebelled against God, broken His law and 
neglected and abused His love; perhaps you have 
blasphemed His name and murder stains your hands, 
yet all this guilt Jesus' blood can wash away, and His 
eloquent lips can plead and prevail over all this crime 
at the throne of God. But from the least sinner to 
the vilest we all need just such an intercessor in the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 53 

court of heaven. What does man need for salvation 
that Jesus cannot do? Is it redemption from the law? 
Says Paul, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for us." Is it justifi- 
cation with God? Says Paul, "Christ is the end of 
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." 
Is it the forgiveness of sin? Says Jesus, "All manner 
of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men," 
Is it all enemies overcome? Paul says, "Jesus shall 
put all enemies under His feet," and "the last enemy 
that shall be destroyed is death." Is it an all- 
prevailing advocate with God we want? Says John, 
"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the righteous, and Him the Father heareth always." 
He only is a Saviour, and He is an all-sufficient 
Saviour, who "saves to the uttermost all who come 
unto God by Him." 

Third. For whom is this salvation asked? "Lord, 
save me." It is a special, individual, personal salva- 
tion. If men would only read the law and the Gospel 
in the first person, it would tear the veil from their 
eyes and pierce their hearts with conviction, and often 
bring faith and hope and joy; but they seem to read it 
as if the third person were all through substituted for 
the first and second: He shall have no other gods; 
he shall not take the name of the Lord in vain! He 
shall not steal, nor false swear, nor covet! He shall 
love the Lord; he shall leave all and follow Christ, 
or he shall have no mercy, he shall be damned! And 
when they come to the Gospel, they read it much the 
same way, as if they had no personal interest in all 
its sweet invitations, as if they were not starving for 
all its rich provisions. They seem to read all the 
time, "Christ taketh away the sin of the world;" 



54 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



"Jesus came to save sinners;" "Jesus died for the 
unjust." But never think of reading it, "Jesus came 
to save me;" "Jesus died for me." Men are particular 
and personal about their rights and possessions and 
necessities in this world. You will hear, "I own 
that;" "/ need that;" "that is my right;" "I must take 
care of my own interest." But how strange is it that, 
in the most important interest, in the concerns of their 
immortal souls, they are contented with the vaguest 
generalities. There is salvation for sinners, there is 
hope for the lost, and doubtless some even pray, "Lord, 
save sinners," before they have cried out in agony of 
faith, "Lord, save me." True, the Gospel abhors self- 
ishness, but it is no selfishness to live before you call 
others to life — it is no selfishness to taste the food 
before you tell others it is good and call them to the 
banquet. No, the Gospel teaches self-love even as 
love to your neighbor. There are houses in New 
York where food is provided for those who are too 
poor to buy, and they are invited to come and eat 
freely, but what would you think of a man standing 
at the door of such an eating house, ragged and 
hungry, and who had never tasted the food, calling 
the hungry passer by to come and eat? Would he 
not rather say, "That table was spread for me — there 
is abundance and to spare; / will go and eat, then 
tell others." 

Do not wrong your own souls out of Gospel treasures 
by assigning it all to others. What good will it do 
your souls though the Lamb of God "taketh away 
the sins of the world," if you never behold Him by 
faith taking away your sins? What though He save 
ten thousand Jews and Gentiles and Scythians, bond 
and free, if He saves not you? What joy can it give 



THE GOLDEN POT. 55 

your heart to know that "ten thousand times ten 
thousand and thousands of thousands" shall worship 
around the throne, and "a great multitude which no 
man can number" shall bear their palms and wear 
white robes before the Lamb? Can this rejoice you 
if you are not in the happy throng? It can give no 
joy or peace to my soul that Jesus died for sinners 
unless I see that He died for me. What comfort that 
Jesus saves if He saves not you? "It is mine and 
thine," that sweetens the Gospel, my God and my 
Saviour. If you were a toiling, miserable slave in 
chains, and a liberator should come with redemption 
money in his hand, you would not say, "Buy my 
neighbor, buy all the adjoining plantation;" but, "Buy 
me!" 

Just such a perishing, suffering sinner you are. 
Then cry, "Lord, save me!" Oh! believe me, each 
one of you need salvation. I would except none. 
You are most needy, dying in want, and you need 
a great salvation, and such a salvation is offered, and 
you need a great Saviour, a mighty, conquering 
Redeemer, an irresistible advocate. Such a Saviour 
is offered, for "salvation is of the Lord." You need 
it for yourself, every one who hears my voice. None 
need it worse than you personally. When pierced 
with an agony of danger, and the misery of sin, will 
you not cry out, "Lord, save me?" 

The Lord does not save sinners by nations, as He 
brought Israel out of Egypt. He saves not by com- 
munities or cities, as when He spared Nineveh; nor 
by families, as when He took Lot out of Sodom. 
But He saves individual persons. "He calls His 
sheep by name" "Their names are written in the 
Lamb's book of life." What though you may be 



5 6 THE GOLDEN POT. 

in a religious community, or even in a church dis- 
tinguished for piety. This will be no safety to you. 
What though your father and mother may be pious? 
This will do you no good if you have not Christ's 
righteousness. But all this will, rather, aggravate 
your guilt. To convince you that you personally are 
a guilty, perishing sinner, and that Jesus is a willing, 
able Saviour for you; to convince you of all this, 
the law and the Gospel is given, apostles and teachers 
are given, the Word preached and ordinances admin- 
istered ; yet, after all this, you must pray for the Holy 
Spirit to lead you into the truth. But, oh ! remember, 
if thou art wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if 
thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. 



IV. 
Justice and Salvation. 

"A Just God and a Saviour" Isaiah xlv: 21. 

This text contains a problem more difficult than 
any Euclid ever proposed — a seeming paradox. How 
can God be just, yet Himself become the Saviour 
of the guilty? To human reason, to all the powers 
of a created mind, the first view here given of the 
Divine character, "A just God," excludes all hope 
from sinful, guilty man; but in the second view, as 
"a Saviour," He is presented as the foundation of all 
hope. It is only poor, blind, short-sighted reason 
that cannot reconcile justice and justification, that is 
ignorant of the plan of salvation, that looks on a God 
of justice with despairing gloom and terror. But to 
the man of faith, that sees justice and mercy embrace 
each other, this attribute only clothes with firmness 
and consistency the character of his God; gives 
security and assurance to his well grounded hope, for 
it makes a just God a just Saviour. And a clear con- 
viction that God is just and that it is only justice in 
Him to condemn the sinner, is needful to the heart 
of guilty man before he can sincerely, willingly, accept 
God as a Saviour. Because one of the noblest traits 
possessed by man is a disposition to resent injustice. 
Every pulse of rectitude, his very manhood, rebels 
against it, and so long as a single vestige of right 
is withheld, his unconquerable spirit will remain firm 
and strong in resistance. It is only insulting to offer 
him pardon from an unjust sentence. Go to the cell 



58 THE GOLDEN POT. 

and offer pardon to an innocent prisoner, and his man- 
hood bids him spurn you as an insulter. True, he 
may be so crushed by overpowering tyranny that, to 
save his life, he may accept terms called merciful, but 
he does not accept them as mercy, neither is he sin- 
cere, for his heart rebels in the very act of submission. 

So it is with sinful man. So long as he does not 
admit the justice of God in his condemnation, he can- 
not submit to a Saviour acceptably; cannot sincerely, 
thankfully receive sovereign, undeserved mercy; and 
a forced, unwilling acceptance is with God no accept- 
ance at all. Therefore in the text God is first pre- 
sented as just, which the sinner must fully admit; 
then He is presented as a Saviour, whom the guilty 
may and should heartily accept. 

By writers the justice of God has been divided into 
relative, particular, judicial and absolute, so absolute 
that without any regard to any moral qualities in the 
subject, He can inflict punishment, can subject the 
most innocent creatures to suffering. Such a monster 
would be, indeed, a terror! But as God is not judge 
of any innocent moral agents in this world, and cannot 
show such a disposition, neither do we receive such 
as the character of God. 

While these nice distinctions, unlearned questions 
and strife about words may do to fill the book of 
the polemic, it is much more interesting to us to know 
something of the justice of God as the governor and 
judge of men, His lawful subjects. Not to prove in 
this relation that God is just, for to attempt to prove 
by reason and argument anything the Bible plainly 
asserts is to discredit the Word of God, and be guilty 
of great presumption. 

But to show some of the wavs in which this attribute 



THE GOLDEN POT. 59, 

is manifested, and some characteristics of it: in this 
relation of ruler and judge, justice is giving every 
one his due, under an equitable law. Then, first, the 
justice of God appears in His law. He has given His 
subjects a righteous law, adapted to their nature and 
powers. Let any one with an enlightened judgment 
and an honest conscience examine closely every pre- 
cept of the decalogue, and can he fail to admire its 
purity, that requires every thought and feeling to be 
clean and every deed of life righteous; and can he 
fail to admit that justice is stamped on every word? 
So extensively is this truth felt that you may examine 
the statute books of every intelligent, civilized nation 
on the face of the earth, and any enactment of free- 
dom, of equity, between man and man found there, 
can be traced in its principles to this law; and it is 
universally admitted to be the standard of justice. 

Or take the Golden Rule, the sum and epitome of 
the second table of the law, and how irresistibly is the 
conviction forced upon every conscience that it is a 
just standard of judgment. Or take the sum and 
epitome of the whole law, as given by our Saviour: 
"Thou shalt love the Lord," etc. If we reflect upon 
the excellency of our God as an object of love, His 
boundless goodness, His innumerable peerless gifts 
bestowed on us every day and hour and moment of 
life, and the claims of our fellow-men, in their relation 
with us to Him; consider all these things, and the 
mind and heart can find refuge from conviction of its- 
justice only in rank, daring atheism, and in that only 
battles against it. Men must either deny such a 
God as our Lord, or admit the justice of His claim 
to supreme love. And all the commands of God are 
right, not only because commanded by Him, but in- 



60 THE GOLDEN POT. 

herently just in their suitableness to the nature of 
things. True, the wicked may find objection to these 
laws, just as the robber, seducer and murderer may 
object to all the salutary laws of the land. 

"What criminal ever felt the halter draw 
With any good opinion of the law?" 

But the opinion of every upright, honest heart is 
that of David, "I esteem all Thy precepts concerning 
all things to be right." 

But some say this law is now unjust, because the 
subjects have lost the moral ability to obey it! 
This might be urged with some show of reason if 
the power had been taken from him against his will. 
But man lost the power by his own voluntary act, and 
is still willing to do without it — in truth, does not 
desire to possess the ability when offered him; and 
every one who makes this objection is conscious he 
does not obey to the extent of his power. But is the 
objection one that should exonerate the transgressor? 
What is moral inability? It is simply want of will, 
an unwillingness to do what he knows he should 
and could. Try it in an earthly court. What would 
you think of a thief who should come before his judge 
and say, "I have such a thieving disposition, such a 
delight and propensity to steal, I have not the moral 
ability to obey the law against theft; therefore, that 
law is not just!" Is he not far more daring an insulter 
who should come before God, saying, "I have such 
a wicked heart, I cannot obey your law — therefore 
it is unjust?" And conscience tells him he has made 
"his heart thus wicked, and that he loves its very 
wickedness. Could conscience but speak out, its 
testimony would be, "The law is holy, just and good, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 6 1 

a perfect transcript of its glorious author, a faithful 
expression of His justice, and the condemnation of 
every transgressor a righteous judgment. What here 
and now aggravates man's sin far more is that restora- 
tion is offered, the strengthening grace of the Divine 
Spirit, a new heart and a right spirit, which he 
refuses!" 

But laws must be enforced or they become mere 
counsels or admonitions. Rewards and penalties are 
seals of authority, and justice demands that these be 
proportioned to the services and offences. Then are 
the rewards and penalties to God's law in this respect 
equitable? True, God was not under any obligation 
to offer specific rewards for obedience, for obedience 
was our duty and brings its own reward. It is for 
man's happiness here to obey every statute and pre- 
cept of God's law. But if we had kept them all per- 
fectly, we could but have said, "We are unprofitable 
servants to our Maker." But surely there is no injus- 
tice in God's promising a reward, or, if it exceed what 
the service deserves! But as by transgression we 
have lost all hope of reward in our own right, it only 
remains to consider whether a just penalty for trans- 
gression is affixed to the law of God. The penalty 
clearly written in the book is, "Depart from Me; these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment." If the 
penalty is too light, justice is defrauded; if too severe, 
the subject suffers tyranny and cruelty. But the 
guilty are not disposed to complain that it is too light, 
and who has the right or is competent to say that it 
is too severe? Will the judge leave it to the criminal 
to say what his penalty shall be? Three things are 
needful to fit one to judge a penalty: 

First. He must be able to comprehend fully the 
guilt and evil of violating a law. 



■62 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Second. He must be able to comprehend fully the 
jrightful claims of the law maker. 

Third. He must fully comprehend the penalty 
•enacted. 

Then where is the created intellect that can do this, 
measure the bounds of iniquity and weigh in balances 
the guilt of the transgression? Can finite tell us the 
«vil of sin? The least sin which, in its influence, like 
the pestilence borne on the widening onward circling 
waves of the air, spreads ruin and putrid death in 
its ceaseless march, sin, in the aggregate, that dragged 
.an angel host from heaven and wrecked our beautiful 
world, leaving it a corrupt and perishing thing, a 
mighty moral ruin, marked with blood, carnage and 
desolation in the footsteps of the destroyer! 

Who can measure the extent and effect of the first 
act of disobedience, that "brought death into our 
world and all our woe?" But if we cannot compass 
the wide ruin or weigh the awful sinfulness of sin, 
we are surely unfit to fix or judge the penalty affixed 
to the Divine law. Then the dignity and claim of the 
great Law-maker is as far beyond our comprehension. 
Can finite powers measure infinite perfections, or 
compass the claim of God's justice? Then we are 
unfit to judge His penalty. In human governments 
penalties are graded according to the character of the 
crime and position of the person offended. A slight 
offense against a ruler is far more criminal than 
against a subject, because it strikes at the welfare or 
life of a whole people or nation. Murder and treason 
for this reason are punished with death or imprison- 
ment for life, and the offender is regarded a criminal 
as long as he lives. Then why should not a sinner 
against the great and infinite God, and when divined 



THE GOLDEN POT. 63 

must forever be a sinner, why should not his penalty 
be banishment from God, and, consequently, endless 
misery? Every candid, enlightened conscience must 
feel that there is an equitable proportion in the awful 
punishment, and the crime so boundless in its destruc- 
tiveness, committed against such greatness and good- 
ness! Paul exclaims, "Is God unrighteous," etc. 
The very nature of justice forbids anything less than 
satisfaction to the full claims of the law. Paul, in 
Romans iii, says, "God set forth to be a propitiation, 
... to declare His righteousness;" but if sin could 
be pardoned without satisfaction to the law, the suf- 
fering of Christ was not a declaration of the righteous- 
ness, but of the unrighteousness, of God! But there 
is no pardon, no mercy, in unsatisfied justice. If all 
the millions of earth and all the angelic host of heaven 
prostrate should plead before the throne of God, they 
■could not secure the pardon of a single sin! But the 
guiltiest transgressor on earth may bend his knee 
l»efore God in the name of Jesus Christ and find 
mercy, for justice is satisfied in Him. But laws may 
be a perfect expression of equity, be suited to the 
nature of subjects, and enforced by adequate penalty, 
but another clear manifestation of justice is in their 
impartial execution. We often reason of God's 
benevolence, wisdom and justice, from the same attri- 
butes among men, and, comparing God's proceedings 
with human administrations, we talk of strict, impar- 
tial, inflexible justice; but strictly, no adjectives can 
be applied to justice at all. The true definition of 
justice is all the demands of a righteous law satisfied, 
either by obedience or suffering, or both. Anything 
less is fraud — anything more is tyranny. The attempt 
to administer such equity by men may be defeated 



64 THE GOLDEN POT. 

in many ways. Ten thousand transgressions may 
escape punishment through the ignorance of human 
executives — want of integrity with the judges of earth, 
want of ability to execute the laws, may defeat their 
claims; place and power may secure the offender. 
Kings and conquerors may commit with impunity 
crimes that would hang the peasant or private robber; 
the wealthy may corrupt the witnesses, bribe the 
judge, or pervert both testimony and law; or lawyers, 
by entreating eloquence, may delude the judgment, 
or, by cunning sophistry, may blind and mislead the 
court. 

But none of these things can affect the justice of 
God. The omniscient, searching eye of God can see 
all transgression, whether the thought or emotion of 
the soul, or the deed of the life; His spotless purity and 
unswerving integrity will not suffer them to escape, 
and His omnipotence can punish them all. The frown 
of royalty or the bravado of the conqueror has no 
power before the almighty Judge, but the king of 
Babylon is driven out to dwell with the beasts of the 
field, and Bonaparte perishes in lonely exile. Obscur- 
ity cannot hide the criminal; the guilt of the despised 
pauper and the deed of the stealthy midnight assassin 
are clear before the brightness of His face. All the 
wealth of earth could not buy favor at that court, nor 
corrupt the Judge of heaven; and though Noah, Job 
and Daniel should plead, they could not turn aside 
justice, and no art nor sophistry can there shield the 
accused! Job says, "The work of a man will He 
render unto him, and cause every man to find accord- 
ing to his ways ; yea, surely God will not do wickedly, 
neither will the Almighty pervert judgment." 

If justice can be defined at all by adjectives, God's 



THE GOLDEN POT. 65 

justice is most emphatically strict, impartial, inflexible 
justice. Of all that have ever been called to judg- 
ment, not a single sin, whether the slightest offence 
of omission, or the bold, crimson crime; whether the 
thought of the heart, or the darkest deed of life, not 
a single sin has passed unpunished; and of all the 
millions who must yet stand at the bar of God, not 
a single sin will pass unpunished — the penalty must be 
endured for every transgression of every soul that 
ever has lived, or ever shall live, to the end of time. 
This only is justice. He who cannot find, or will not 
accept a sufficient substitute, must suffer for himself 
or herself! 

But it is objected that the distribution of rewards 
and penalties in this life are not just, that we often 
see the wicked prosper and flourish, and the good 
poor and afflicted. In the strict sense of justice, 
rewards and penalties are not distributed at all in 
this life. Should we complain that justice is defrauded 
by the imprisoned malefactor awaiting execution, or 
the criminal given a few days' reprieve by the gover- 
nor? Or that God gives a short respite to the guilty 
of earth? Poor, guilty rebels are but sporting in their 
prison cell, and the few drops of wrath that fall upon 
them here is but an intimation, an assurance, a security 
that the full flood of wrath shall be poured upon them 
hereafter. It seems the Psalmist was once disposed 
to complain of the present administration. Psalms 
lxxiii: 3, 13, 16, 17: "For I was envious at the 
foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. . . . 
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed 
my hands in innocency. When I thought to know 
this it was too painful for me; until I went into the 
sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." 



66 THE GOLDEN POT. 

If any are tempted, like the Psalmist, to be envious, 
let their faith stretch out and stand before the supreme 
and final court of appeal on the great day of assize, 
when the throne of judgment is set, when the books 
are opened and the dead, small and great, stand before 
God. There will be no king, royal power or con- 
queror recognized there — no wealth, attorney nor 
learning will influence that court; no poverty, title 
nor rank will stand at that tribunal; it will be a con- 
gregation of human beings, of unappendaged, of 
unvarnished men, of plain, unceremonious, earthly 
beings, of all but moral character bereft, and their 
deeds of good or ill will be as clear before the Judge 
as if they had embodied form. The revengeful 
thought as plain as the midday murder — the cheating 
theft of the tradesman as plain as that of the highway 
robber, the guilt of the avaricious, that never gave an 
alms, as clear as that of him who trod upon the poor, 
and drove the slave to his unpaid toil at the end of 
a bloody lash; the whispered slander as clear as the 
loudest blasphemy; the wanton leer and lustful look 
will wear a stamp as vile as the harlot's brow! 

There will be no secret sins, no masked iniquity 
there, but all will be clear before the brightness of the 
Son of man! "All that have sinned without the law," 
etc. 

And when the final sentence is pronounced, the 
angelic host of heaven and the redeemed from earth 
will respond, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King 
of saints!" 

But the justice of God is not without witnesses on 
earth, and some instances of retribution here give 
assurances of the impartial decisions of the last great 
(flay, that men may not forget nor deny that there is 



THE GOLDEN POT. 67 

a God that judgeth in the earth. The conscience 
often brings to the soul convictions of this attribute. 
This deputy of God compels persons to judge and 
condemn or acquit themselves, brings sins in review 
before the soul, and by a law holy, just and good, 
whether written in the Word or on the heart, by this 
measures life, and before conscience justifies the judg- 
ment of God. 

Therefore, among the pagans, where God has no 
written law, the conscience accuses or excuses. Every 
victim that bleeds on heathen altars, every pang the 
deluded Romanist or pagan feels from self-inflicted 
torture, is an admission of guilt and testifies to fear 
of just punishment. 

But often, in great peril or a dying hour, conscience 
extorts from the guilty soul the fullest testimony for 
justice in a future judgment. The criminal who may 
elude the officer, or, being girt with power, may defy 
earthly tribunals, conscience drags before its bar, 
arrays his guilt before him, strips off the specious 
pretense that God may be gentle and merciful toward 
transgression, tears away the mantle of sophistry, 
rends the last shred of hope, and leaves him morally 
naked before his own eyes; and as he looks on death, 
could his terrors speak, their language would be a 
fearful looking for justice in judgment. 

There is also in human life that which confirms the 
dictates of conscience. Happiness, health and peace 
follow in the paths of piety and virtue, while disease, 
suffering and misery crowd the path of vice. And 
history writes some terrible examples of justice in 
earthly judgments. God saw the wickedness of man, 
that it was great in the earth, and every desire of his 
heart evil, and with an overflowing flood He washed 



68 THE GOLDEN POT. 

it clean. Dearh reaped the whole harvest of human 
souls in a few days, save eight, and who, standing 
with Noah on the mountain top, could have doubted 
the justice of God as he saw the waters dried from the 
carcasses of a buried world! Abraham, the friend 
of God, pled for Sodom and Gomorrah, but the cry 
of their foul sin had gone up before the just Judge, 
and He consumed them in His anger — their smoke 
ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and stagnant 
waters now cover the place of the cities of the plain. 

Egypt, once the prince of kingdoms, the seat of 
science, the treasure-house of learning and the granary 
of the East, that gathered her wealth from the rich. 
valleys of the Nile, said in her pride, "My river is mine 
own; I made it for myself." And she worshipped the 
work of her own hands, and trod God's Hebrew 
children under the iron heel of cruel slavery. And 
her rivers were dried up, her valleys made hot, sandy 
solitudes — she became the basest of kingdoms, scarcely 
reckoned among the nations at all. 

Babylon, the glory of the Chaldee's excellency, that 
said she should never be a widow, should never be 
desolate — yet for generations bitterns stalked through 
the dank pools settled in her palaces, owls hooted 
through her gloomy ruins. The shepherd would not 
make his fold there, nor the Arabian pitch tent there, 
the wild beast of the desert made his lair there, and 
dragons in her pleasant places. Babylon was swept 
with the besom of destruction, and it is doubtful if 
the true locality on earth is now known. And Jeru- 
salem, that was the joy of all lands, the glory of the 
whole earth, the city of the great king, but in her 
skirts was found the blood of poor innocents; she 
washed not her heart from pollution in the day of her 



THE GOLDEN POT. 69 

merciful visitation, but crucified her Messiah, and her 
famishing children were made to eat their own flesh, 
the mother dressed her own babe for food, the city's 
strong walls were battered down, the magnificent 
temple burned, Zion was plowed as a field, and her 
children, homeless, strangers, are an astonishment, 
a proverb and a by-word, among all nations! God 
looketh on the earth and it trembleth. He shaketh 
the pillars of the world and the inhabitants stagger 
like drunken men, and the gaping earthquake closes 
her lips over mighty cities; He toucheth the moun- 
tains and they burn until a flooded continent boils like 
a cauldron with the tide of hot lava! He calls for 
meager famine, till hungry, haggard and hollow-eyed 
men lie down and die. He sends pestilence and strews 
earth with putrid carcasses, that want a grave. 

These are a few examples of avenging justice, that 
show the Divine hatred of sin. But, above all other 
manifestations of Divine justice, the sufferings of 
Christ most clearly and impressively reveal the im- 
measurable guilt of sin, the extent of the law's claim, 
and the unyielding and inflexible justice of God. So 
great the guilt of sin, no other life but that of the 
Son could atone for it! So great the claims of the 
law, nothing less could satisfy them! So inflexible 
the justice of God, it could not spare His only Son! 
Three times the suffering Saviour said, "O Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!" But 
to save a sinner this was not possible even with God, 
to whom, it is said, all things are possible! While 
He bore the guilt of His people, the Almighty hand 
could not turn aside the sword of justice from His 
own Son! For surely, if it had been possible, God 
would have spared His innocent Son! If the cattle 



70 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



and flocks of earth, slaughtered in numberless heta- 
combs, could have atoned for guilt; if the coffered 
millions of the wealthy, or the disemboweled treasures 
of the universe, could have purchased pardon — nay, 
if our whole guilty race, suffering for ages, could have 
satisfied justice, surely God would have spared His 
only, His well beloved Son! But unrelenting, un- 
abating justice holds even the balances, and God must 
lay on the full weight of wrath for the guiltless Jesus! 
Such a display of justice man or angel has never seen 
before, and will never see again, not even on that 
great day, even if millions are driven from Him to 
endless woe. For the suffering of Christ in the judg- 
ment of God gave full satisfaction to Divine justice, 
which a whole condemned world could not do in 
numberless ages of agony. And is it not an awful 
argument for the justice of God that it abated nothing 
of its rigor when it judged the Son of God? 

If any would delude himself with the thought that 
the essential goodness and mercy of God is a ground 
of hope for the guilty, let him look on Calvary, where 
personal innocence suffered, and tremble. No, God 
is harmonious in all His perfections, therefore He is 
strictly, impartially, perfectly just. Then it becomes 
to us an interesting, an all-important, an alarming 
question — how can guilty man be saved? How can 
such a just God be a Saviour, a just Saviour? This 
He cannot be until the demands of the law are ful- 
filled. It is vain to pray, to reform, to plead for 
mercy — God cannot pardon until Divine justice is 
satisfied. But wnat can appease such anger, what can 
atone for such guilt, what can propitiate, what honor 
such justice? Will deep, pungent sorrow for sin, true 
repentance, secure mercy? Try this before a human 



THE GOLDEN POT. Ji 

tribunal. Let the criminal candidly confess his guilt, 
with the most earnest sincerity his sorrow, promise 
reformation and plead for mercy. Will the law relax 
its iron grasp and the relenting judge discharge the 
convict. Certainly not. Then how dare plead this 
at the bar ot God, especially when you remember that 
repentance is your duty, and His gift? Will you 
satisfy the law with rich offerings, and appease an 
offended judge with costly sacrilices? Then where 
in all trie universe will you find such rich offerings, 
such costly sacrifices? Gather all the glittering trea- 
sures of earth, slay the cattle and flocks on a thousand 
hills, and will this be acceptable, or have you given 
the great Creator anything? "Behold, Lebanon is 
not sufficient," etc. 

"Will the Lord be pleased?" etc. Neither would 
this be sufficient. 

What, then, can we do? Here all the research and 
wisdom of man are vain, and the intellect of angels is 
baffled! Omniscient wisdom alone can conceive and 
omnipotent power alone accomplish salvation, and 
even God is represented as laboring and searching 
to find a way. Listen. "Deliver from going down 
to the pit, I have found a ransom;" "Behold, the Lamb 
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." 
Christ comes a voluntary sacrifice, who has a right 
to lay down His life, and the power to take it again. 
He is made subject to the law, and acknowledges the 
justice of its claims by a life of obedience, keeping 
every precept, both in letter and spirit, heart and life. 
He acknowledges the justice of its penalty by turning 
its thirsty sword from guilty man, to sheathe it in 
His own heart! He drank the cup of God's fierce 
anger and endured the agony of a soul condemned 



72 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



to die, and the purity of the sacrifice, the infinite value 
of the offering, and the dignity of the sufferer, magni- 
fied the law, and when upon the cross He cried, "It 
is finished," justice was satisfied, and God could be 
a just God and a just Saviour for all who, by faith 
in Christ, accept this satisfaction. 

Now there is light; the gloom is dispelled; the 
darkness is gone, and the way is clear; man may now 
plead, for God can pardon; now the sinner can hope, 
for God can have mercy. As before the justice of 
God secured the sinner's condemnation, now it is 
pledged for the salvation of those who are in Christ. 
For when the law is satisfied, God cannot condemn, 
and "Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteous- 
ness to every one that believeth." And "He is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness." 

He can be the Saviour of all who come. He can 
save from the guilt of sin, love of sin and pollution of 
sin, for He has promised thus to save, and He is a 
just God and a just Saviour. 

I close with one question — I cannot answer it, 
angels cannot, I know not if God can — He never has, 
yet asks it of us, "How can we escape if we neglect 
so great salvation?" 



V. 
Moral Distance; or, Border-land Loyalty. 

" Only ye shall not go very far away," Exodus viii: 28. 

Rebellious Pharoah was cunning and crafty. If 
they would not sacrifice in the land, then he would 
let the men go into the wilderness to worship, but 
they must leave their women and children; or, if they 
took these, they must leave their flocks and herds, 
and they must promise not to "go very far away." 
If they left their wives and children, Egypt would 
have a hold on them; if they left their flocks and 
herds, Moses could not keep them away. If they did 
not go very far away, they could be enticed, or forced, 
back. This is Satan-like. He is willing sinful men 
shall go a little way on the road to the promised land, 
as far as reformation and morality will carry them, 
as far as respectable, fashionable social life may re- 
quire; nay, they may go as far as the Church and a 
profession, if they have a worldly, godless wife or 
husband outside, or if they leave all their wealth and 
conduct all their business in Egypt, according to their 
ways and maxims. They have not gone far enough 
to trouble his Satanic majesty; they will come back — 
in truth, they have not gone away at all. The design 
of this discourse is to show what moral distance is, its 
influence and safety. The Devil's device is not to let 
men get very far away from him, or from their sin and 
temptation. God's command and advice is, get far 
from iniquity — stand afar off. Moral distance cannot 
be measured with Gunter's Chain. It cannot be esti- 



74 THE GOLDEN POT. 

mated by so many miles, or so many leagues. The 
literal space between two persons may be but the 
width of a wall, or a dooryard, yet the moral separation 
wide as the poles. When the Israelites had put their 
full three days' journey on foot between them and 
Egypt, yet by a railway train we would surely not have 
called it far away. Yet when they were behind Horeb 
and the cloud and pillar of fire, and thundering, 
burning Sinai was between them and the field of 
Zoan, they were, in a moral sense, farther from Egypt 
than if they had been on the western border of 
America. Abraham and Dives could talk together, yet 
there was a gulf between them, and they were as. 
widely separated as heaven and hell. 

There is imminent danger in nearness to evil — to 
temptation. When there is but a little space between 
the soul and some coveted evil, there is great danger 
of the two coming together again — of its returning to 
it. Pharoah seems to have thought so. When he 
began to think he would be compelled to let Israel go, 
his cunning, Satanic command was: "Only ye shall 
not go very far away." If he could prevent Israel 
from going beyond the influence of Egypt, keep them 
from going far enough to wean them from its associa- 
tions, far enough to forget its flesh-pots and lusts; if 
he could keep their children there, or even part of 
their cattle there, he would have power to bring them 
back. So with man's danger from any evil; only keep 
him and the evil thing — the temptation — near enough 
together to stretch any cord between them, and that 
soul is yet under the power of that enemy, and in great 
danger. This arises from the corruption of man's 
nature; because of his depravity he is susceptible to 
evil influence — temptation has an attractive, com- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 75, 

manding power over him. Nearness in many things- 
is dangerous because of their nature. A powder- 
magazine and an iron furnace in blast would hardly 
be safe side by side; the wolf and the lamb could 
scarcely be safely folded together; the nature of one 
or the other must be changed. Neal Dow, it is possi- 
ble,, might live safely next door to a grog-shop; but 
to thousands it would be a place of ruin. If Samson's 
heart had been right in his Nazarite vow, he might 
have lain his head in Delilah's lap in safety; but 
because of his nature and the state of his heart, it was 
the pillow of death for him. The Devil is very willing 
to lengthen men's tether, and let them think they 
lengthened it themselves; he is very willing they shall 
go a little way, and flatter themselves they are free 
men, and can go where they please. But if he can, 
prevent their going very far away, they are as secure 
as he desires. A man wakens to the consciousness 
that he is becoming a drunkard, that he is infatuated 
and becoming enslaved to strong drink. "What a 
fool I am!" he exclaims; "I am suffering appetite to 
master me; I have abused myself; I must quit this." 
What does he do? Does he say, "I must renounce 
this teetotally and forever; I must put a wide distance 
between me and the gilded hall and its companions ; 
T must secure an^eternal divorce from all its influence 
and temptations?" No, no! He says: "I have been 
abusing myself; I must use it more temperately; I will 
take my glass of wine or ale at my meals, and limit 
myself at the club." Methinks a smiling Devil says, 
"Not gone very far away; he'll be back." Another 
victim goes farther. He has quit frequenting the bar 
and the beer hall, and wears a blue or a red ribbon; 
but the Devil says, "Not gone very far; only moved 



j6 THE GOLDEN POT. 

round the corner into the next square; I will drop 
in and see him some Sabbath evening, and ask him 
to take a walk with me." Truly, the Devil is right; 
there is a short physical space, but no moral distance 
at all. The tether is only a little lengthened, but 
fastened at both ends. As another illustration, take 
the sad case — unhappily very frequent — of the man 
who became convinced of the truth that he is guilty 
before God, morally corrupt, selfish, unclean, in peril 
and unhappy. What does he do? Does he say: "I 
will candidly confess my sinfulness, and make a full 
surrender to Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners, and 
give my life to be ruled by His Spirit and law, and 
walk in His ordinances?" No! But he says: "I must 
quit these flagrant transgressions ; I must correct these 
immoralities; I must reform my life and join some 
church." The Devil says, with a grin: "Not gone 
very far; only an eighteen-inch wall between me and 
him, and the door is open." He has not changed a 
whit, only in fancy; he thinks he has moved to Jeru- 
salem, but it is all imagination; he is living in Sodom 
yet. It is true, there has been natural motion and 
apparent journeying, but no moral distance attained 
at all. The station may have been changed, but not 
the state; the soul is still in the atmosphere of evil, 
the fire and the tinder-box are yet near together, the 
powder and the match are side by side, and the least 
friction may produce explosion. 

You must go far enough not only to stretch, but 
break the tether at one end or the other. You must 
put the pillar of cloud and fire, Horeb, Sinai and the 
cross, between you and your foes. You can never 
be in safety until you put a moral distance between 
you and your foes that cannot be measured by any 



THE GOLDEN POT. 77 

mere physical space. But my reader may ask, What 
is moral distance? A full and clear definition of it is 
important to us. It is not determined by either 
square, round or long measure, or any physical space 
between. Two families may be separated by only a 
partition wall, yet be morally as wide apart as east and 
west. During our late war, you may remember, the 
loyalty of those living along the border was suspected, 
and why? Surely not simply because they were locally 
so near the enemy's land; for our "Boys in Blue," who 
were only separated from Lee's people by the narrow 
little Rapidan, or stood face to face with them on the 
other side, were above all suspicion. Then why sus- 
pect of disloyalty others who only lived on the border- 
land? Because it was supposed they held rebellious 
sentiments and opinions ; that their interests, impulses, 
feelings and desires flowed together in the same chan- 
nel with the other side — that is, while there was but 
a short physical space between them, there was no 
moral distance at all. 

Moral distance is measured by the inclinations of 
the soul, by the directions and impulses of the desires 
of the heart, by the position of the affections in relation 
to any evil thing or thought, by the truths or principles 
that impel the life to or from error or evil. Let a man 
get a sight of an evil, of a temptation, in its true char- 
acter as a sin, an enemy, a danger; then, if the pulse of 
spiritual life begins to beat with hatred and abhorrence 
of it, the moral distance between him and it begins 
to widen rapidly. Every such heart-throb puts him 
more than a day's journey away, though he may not 
have changed his local position at all. The best defi- 
nition of genuine repentance ever given is: "A true 
sight and sense of sin, and with grief and hatred of if, 



78 THE GOLDEN POT. 

turning from it unto God." It is this soul-grief for 
having sinned and hatred of it which places the soul 
"very far away" in a position of safety. So soon as 
the soul, in its controlling- principles, impulses, desires 
and affections, begins to turn away from any sin as 
abominable, as hateful, because sin, a day's journey 
of that soul towards the very "far off" from evil has 
never been measured. 

Thirty years ago, if you had placed John B. Gough 
alone on Selkirk's Island, he would scarcely have been 
safer from drunkenness than he is walking the streets 
of New York to-day. In the one case his drunkenness 
would have been a physical impossibility; in the other, 
by his new creation, it has become a moral impossi- 
bility. His distance from the grog-shop now is not 
measured by so many doors, so many streets, or so 
many squares, but by soul beats of abhorrence to it, 
by battle throbs of heart against it; there is now a 
"great gulf" between him and that liquid hell. So 
whenever a man's soul is brought into such a state as 
to beat heart-throbs of grief, hatred and abhorrence 
of any and every form of his sin, of temptation and evil, 
then by these alone you can measure his moral dis- 
tance from them ; these alone put him "very far away," 
and sadden the Devil's hope of his return. There is 
very little safety in mere physical separation, in so 
many lengths of space between the soul and its tempta- 
tion, its opportunity to transgress. It may be a useful 
means to help a soul that is a victim to some specific 
form of sin; but unless the moral separation and dis- 
tance follow, the going back is sure by and by. You 
may wash a sow clean ; but, if you intend to keep her 
clean, you must lock her up in the bureau drawer. 
iSo long as she has the hog nature she will go back 



THE GOLDEN POT. 79 

to the mire if she has a chance. But let any man or 
woman secure this moral separation from sin — this 
"very far away" of heart hatred of evil — then they 
may walk through the foulest dens of guilt and misery 
in your sin-stained city as untainted as the holy angels, 
who perhaps enter them in pity and love. 

There are, perhaps, men among the gold-bags and 
money-vaults of your banks and exchanges, among 
the lynx-eyed, greedy, guilty gambling of your boards 
of trade and centres of commerce, that are doing 
business uprightly and honorably, gathering the 
.Lord's treasure to use for the Lord's honor and the 
blessing of humanity; but, if there are, their souls, by 
a moral separation, are more than a three days' journey 
from the greed, cheating and avarice that revel there. 
After Paul saw that vision on the road to Damascus, 
you might have set him in the midst of the self- 
righteous Sanhedrim; they might have all lavished 
their praises on him, appealing to his Jewish pride 
and family fame; they might have offered him the 
pomp of position and all the glory of law learning, 
yet he would have been safe, unmoved by it all. He 
could have said, "I have suffered the loss of all these 
things, and do count them but dung that I may win 
Christ." His soul was separated by an immeasurable 
distance; for it had followed the heavenly voice heard 
"by the gates of Damascus, and was up where Christ 
sitteth. When Jesus, the Holy One, laid His hand 
on the loathsome leper, or talked side by side with 
the harlot at Jacob's well, He received no contagion; 
He was "very far away" from evil, because "holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners" by a 
great moral distance. For safety, contrary to 
Pharaoh's orders, you must go very far away, not 



80 THE GOLDEN POT. 

only in miles and leagues, but in heart; it must be 
moral distance. Only in this separation is there 
security; but there is absolute safety in the moral 
distance of a three days' journey in heart from the 
presence of evil. "Put iniquity far from thee, saith 
the Lord." 

How to secure this separation — how to attain this 
moral distance. It cannot be secured by mere change 
of location, by travelling away from a tempting thing, 
or from the place of transgression. Seas cannot 
separate between sin and the sinner, or the sinner and 
danger, except the red sea of atoning blood. Change 
of place will not work a change of mind; change of 
climate will not change the atmosphere of the soul. 
The cloister cannot shut unbelief, or lust, or pride, 
or selfishness, or carnality, or worldliness out of the 
heart. So long as you are in the world, you cannot 
escape the presence of evil, though you may be far 
from it in heart, just as you cannot flee from the Divine 
presence; "for in Him we live, and move, and have our 
being;" yet you may be far from God in heart. Lot's 
wife never could have run away from Sodom if she 
had crossed the globe; for she carried Sodom in her 
heart. That was the reason she looked back. Yet 
some men are foolish enough to think they can run 
away from a bad reputation, from their temptations 
and sins. If you are a thief or liar, you may flee to 
Halifax; but the news will reach there before you. If 
no other way, "a bird of the air shall carry the voice, 
and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." A 
drinker canot run away from the drinking evil, from 
the leech of appetite. He will find it in every land, 
among all people. The breath of this vile traffic 
encircles the globe like the atmosphere. You may 



THE GOLDEN POT. 8 1 

travel fast and far, cross oceans, mountains and deserts, 
lodge in the wilderness, tent on the plains or dwell 
in caves, bask beneath summer skies or wrap yourself 
in furs at the poles, yet the gnawing worm will grind 
away, and the tainted breath will fill your lungs. You 
can never run away from sin or danger until you run 
away from self. So long as you live you must face 
evil, stand in the presence of danger, and walk amid 
iniquity and temptation; and you may do all this, yet 
be very far away from evil. How to secure separation, 
how to attain moral distance, is the question. It is 
secured through death, by the power of Christ's death 
over the soul. You remember that death-white face 
you looked upon in your house one evening. In the 
morning, when you awoke, he had not returned. 
You have waited for years; he has not yet come back. 
He has gone very far away. Before that pale facebring 
all the power of the evil world and all the fascinations 
of sin — they move it not. It is utterly unconscious 
of any attractions before it. Death has forever 
divorced the soul and these things. In His Word, 
God uses such a figure as illustrating in some measure 
the effect of Christ's death upon the believing soul, 
to separate it from sin, to deliver it from the fascina- 
tions of evil and the allurements of the world. We 
do not wish to convey the idea that the believing soul 
is free from all corruption and indwelling sTh, and as 
insensible to all temptation to evil as a dead body is 
to material or sensuous influences; but that through 
Christ's death there comes to the believer such a 
knowledge, sight and impression of sin, that it loses 
its attractive, fascinating power, and becomes hateful, 
and the soul has become, in some sense and measure, 
dead to it. Can Paul's language mean less when he 



82 THE GOLDEN POT. 

says, "Dead indeed unto sin," "Crucified with Christ," 
"The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the 
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world?" 
What can this mean if he did not regard the world 
as dead to him, and the world regarded him as dead 
to it? We are far from accepting the doctrine of sinless 
perfection in this life, or that grace utterly destroys 
all power of sin in the body; but that through the 
power of Christ's death the soul is enabled to walk 
amid all the pollution, guilt and temptations of earth 
without being overcome by them, the soul regarding 
them as dead, and they esteeming that soul as dead 
to them. Else what the meaning of the words in 
defining sanctification in our catechism, "More and 
more to die unto sin?" The believing soul has gone 
very far away, following Christ; the affections are 
on things above, where Christ sitteth, and every 
thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of 
Christ. Through the truth of Christ's death, through 
faith in Christ's death, by the gracious work of the 
Holy Spirit through faith in this truth, the soul is 
brought into this state of death to sin, and to a 
resurrection journey of three days from it — a moral 
distance that can never be recrossed. 

But, again, this moral separation is secured, this 
moral distance is attained through life. We have in 
the Scriptures these striking expressions: "Dead 
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord," "I am come that they might have 
life," "You hath He quickened," "Created anew in 
Christ Jesus," "A new creature in Christ Jesus." And 
in Ezekiel God says: "A new heart also will I give 
you, and a new spirit will I put within you." By the 
operation of the Spirit, through the truth as it is in 



THE GOLDEN POT. 83 

Jesus, by the work of the Spirit through the love of 
God and the grace that is in Christ, new principles, 
emotions, desires and affections are implanted in the 
heart; new, high, holy, heavenly hopes, objects and 
aims influence the life. The soul is brought under 
principles and motives that impel the life against error 
and evil, and make the heart throb with grief for 
having sinned, and beat with hatred against all the 
temptations, pollutions and destructions of sin. The 
man is still made to stand face to face with temptation 
and sin; but he is a new man, no longer a rebel in 
heart, sympathizing with the transgressor or the trans- 
gression; but a loyal soldier, looking the foe in the 
face, says there can be no truce between us, but victory 
or eternal submission for one or the other is the only 
alternative. As God carried Israel out of Egypt a 
three days' journey, so through His truth, through 
feith in Christ Jesus, He puts the soul into a state 
of death to sin, and carries it through a new life in 
Christ very far away, more than a three days' journey 
toward Canaan land. No power has ever been found 
sufficient to effect a separation between the soul and 
sin. and secure a safe moral distance between them, 
except the power that comes through the death and 
life of Christ by Divine grace. Mere human resolves 
and purposes are too weak; the influence of pride, 
self-respect, fear or worldly interests, is too feeble; 
mere mental, or even moral culture and intellectual 
training, are insufficient to effect it. All law, learning, 
philosophy and scientific attainments cannot secure it. 
All these forces are but wisps of tow in the soul's flam- 
ing lusts, or green withes on the giant arms of sin: 
only Divine cords or bands cannot be cast off or 
broken; only Divine barriers can resist the incoming 



84 THE GOLDEN POT. 

sea or outgoing flood; only a Divine fortress can stand 
the assaults of every foe. Faith puts the pillar of 
cloud and fire, the protection of a gracious God, 
between the soul and its foes, as these separated be- 
tween Israel and the Egyptian host. Faith takes the 
soul as far as Horeb, the mount of God, and not only 
puts the fiery law of Sinai, but the cross of Calvary, 
between the soul and its guilt and sin, that they may 
not come together. Faith not only puts the cross 
between the soul and the descending sword of justice, 
but puts Christ and the empty sepulchre between the 
soul and every Egyptian peril. Faith leads the soul 
as far away as the fold of the Lamb, the pavilion of 
God, and while it is yet dwelling on earth gives it 
citizenship with angels; therefore Paul says our citi- 
zenship is in heaven, whence also we look for the 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith only can lead 
the soul far enough away to be in safety. God only 
can enable any one to attain a moral distance from 
evil, sin and danger. 

Satan and the world ever plays the part of Pharaoh 
to the believer or professor and the Church, and therej 
is reason to fear that many, giving heed to the advice 
and allurements of Satan and the world, have not gone 
"very far" from either. The world, evil influence, 
polluted affections and wicked devices, touch many 
professors and the Church at almost numberless points. 
We have not gone very far from the devil's fields in 
our literature. Such papers as the New York Weekly, 
the Boys and Girls of Nezv York, the Sunday Herald 
and Times, and a large number of others whose names 
it is needless to write, and the "Beadle Novels," the 
dime and nickel series, all this inflaming, lying, pol- 
luting, romancing, is a more pestiferous and destruc- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 85 

tive plague than the locusts and lice of Egypt. But 
much of what is called Christian writing is a polluting 
dalliance with sin and a catering to vice. It touches 
vanity, sensuality and selfishness every here and there. 
These flow through the rhythm and melody of our 
poetry and song, both sentimental and religious. 
Some of our scientific journals, ''so-called," are richly 
veneered with materialistic infidelity. In many of 
the works of art we have gone but a little way from 
the border of hell. The so-called divine art of sculp- 
ture and painting has often ministered to the foulest 
debauchery, and served Satan more than Christ, and 
sin more than holiness. In our recreations and 
amusements, we have not gone beyond the border- 
land, and many of them are decidedly on Satan's side 
of the line. Some tell us that the promiscuous dance 
evokes only pure thoughts and emotions, and gives 
aesthetic and intellectual pleasure; that it is the enjoy- 
ment of the beautiful in graceful action, and the poetry 
and music of motion. Why is it, then, that man 
cannot enjoy it with his own sex, and without a woman 
clasped in his arms or going through questionable 
pedal gesticulations in his presence, and vice versa? 
Separate the sexes in the performance, and all the 
beauty of the most graceful action, and the finest 
poetry and music of motion, soon become insipid — 
the bead, the spirit is gone from the wine — the pleasure 
is flatter than last year's unbottled ale. Why? Be- 
cause the enjoyment, the intoxication, was almost 
wholly sensuous and sensual. From the Christian (?) 
parlor-dance and card-table, the base-ball ground, 
the billiard-table and bowling alley, down to the race- 
course, gambling den and lewd theatre, they have 
all been prostituted to robbery and other vices. In 



86 THE GOLDEN POT. 

our social life we have not gone far enough away to 
let the world know we are away from it at all. The 
spirit of Christian society, in the tone and topics of 
converse, and the nature of its pleasures and the light 
of its joy, can scarcely be distinguished from the intel- 
ligent, cultured, unbelieving, unconverted circle. We 
have not fixed a moral distance and distinction be- 
tween truth and falsehood, right and wrong, purity 
and impurity, that will detect and repel the untrue 
and the unclean; therefore Christian families and 
circles often nurse and warm some of the most deadly 
vipers in their bosoms. Even in the public worship 
of God we seem to keep as near the carnal border 
as possible. The time and length of the service must 
be regulated by the world's horologe; the praise of 
God must be as much as possible suited to operatic 
taste; no matter how giddy or godless the quartette 
or choir may be, if they can only sing like sirens, that 
will atone for all; no matter how filthy and big a villain 
the organist is, if he can only play the big organ 
skilfully, he may during the sermon retire to the 
corner drug store (?) and enjoy his grog or cigar. 
And the sermon must, in its topic, style and delivery, 
not forget the demands of the rostrum and lecture 
platform, and perhaps not even the stage, if it is to 
be acceptable. Thus the spiritual, soulful worship 
of God, in humble supplication and joyful adoration 
and thanksgiving, is sacrificed to what it is hoped 
will please and win the world, yet does not. And it 
is much to be feared many in the Church have not 
gone farther from their first position than the width 
of a church wall, and even while there their heart 
"goeth after its covetousness;" and when they come 
out of the door they are, heart and all, in the world 



THE GOLDEN POT. 87 

again. Whether "circumcision" or "uncircumcision," 
there is reason to fear the "new creature" (or creation) 
is wanting. The influence of this border position tells 
with more force against the cause of Christ and the 
power of the Church than the loudest testimony of 
a witness whose voice is known to come from Satan's 
court. It is not the bold, bald writing of Voltaire 
or filthy Paine, or the brawling atheism and blasphemy 
of Bob Ingersoll or Parker Pillsbury, that weighs on 
the mind of to-day; but it is the scientific morality and 
infidelity expressed in Christian phraseology and 
Scripture terms. The "potency of matter" and force 
of natural law, and value of human virtue, given 
authoritative position and Divine attributes, is the 
intellectual mask of unbelief to-day. It is not the 
poem and song of the saloon and dance-house that is 
most successfully spreading falsehood and filth; it is 
the sacred rhyme and the songs of the parlor and 
fireside which cover its suggestion under a cunning 
"double-en-tendre." It is not the drawings, paintings 
and statuary of the bawdy-house and the bar-room 
that is tainting Christian purity, but that of a higher 
art and finer suggestion found in some Christian 
homes and galleries. It is not the avowed free-lover 
and libertine that is endangering social integrity and 
home happiness, so much as the wealthy man or 
woman, with culture, refinement, polite manners and 
a Christian profession covering an unsanctified heart. 
It is not the non-professor saying the grapes of Eshcol 
are no better than the clusters of Gomorrah, that 
decides the choice of others, so much as the man who 
says he has been in the land of faith and drunken the 
wine of Lebanon, and by his acts says the world's cup 
is just as sweet, if not sweeter; this causes others to 



88 THE GOLDEN POT. 

hold back their lips from the wine of life. This 
border-land literature, art, song, social life and religion 
is a deceitful go-between, a treacherous messenger and 
false spy, whose report is that it is better to go back 
to the flesh-pots, onions and garlic of Egypt, than 
to try to get the honey of the Holy Land. 

My reader, if you do not intend to go "very far 
away," you had better not go at all: it will do you 
no good, injure the church you connect with, and 
misrepresent and dishonor Christ in His religion. 
Seme persons seem to tie themselves to the world, 
then stretch the tether as far as they can, and think 
they are going away from the world and coming 
nearer heaven! What childish folly! A man is no 
less a captive because his chain is lengthened or his 
prison bounds enlarged. Perhaps it might be said 
of you, my reader, Not very far from the Kingdom; 
but that is to be outside the gate, "where are dogs and 
sorcerers," etc., Rev. xxii: 15. Is there not truth 
in the poet's lines: 

"Angel lutes are touched so near 
Hell's confines that the damned can hear?" 

To be only almost a Christian is to be altogether 
lost. Let me entreat you, my reader, do not show 
such a spirit of life; do not so live that Satan and the 
world can say, "Not gone 'very far away.' " It is 
said, and with too much truth, of some in the Church, 
they are not very far from where natural common 
sinners stand; they don't differ much from others; all 
the religion they have will never hurt them; we never 
knew that they had gone away from us! Do not, I 
entreat, live on the border-land of Egypt; for all the 
influence you will then have, all the testimony you can 



THE GOLDEN POT. 89 

give, will be against the religion of Jesus Christ. 
"Stand afar off," as far as the east is distant from the 
west. Depart from the evil, "Avoid it, pass not by it, 
turn from it and pass away" — go as far as Christ 
and Christ-likeness. If you are going at all, go as 
far as Canaan-land; cross the Jordan of death to sin, 
and enter into the life that is nourished upon the wine, 
milk and honey of the promised inheritance; go as far 
as right is from wrong, love is from hatred, purity is 
from impurity, faith is from unbelief, hope is from 
despair, and heaven from hell; go as far as the cross 
and the sepulchre; go on until you come to the mount 
of God, the pavilion of the Most High, to an innum- 
erable company of angels, to the general assembly 
and Church of the first-born, to the heavenly Jeru- 
salem of eternal rest, where there is "no more curse." 



VI. 

Sin a Blood Hound. 

"Be sure your sin will find you out," Numbers xxxii: 23. 
"Evil pur sueth sinners" Proverbs xiii: 21. 

Man's sin, like a vigilant detective, pursues him 
through every street, lane and alley, from cellar to 
garret, through the crowded throng, into his secret 
chamber, lays its hand upon him and says to his 
fearful, fleeing soul, "Thou art guilty!" Or, like the 
keen-scented hound on the track of the fugitive, 
through swamp and tangled brake he follows his 
footsteps; he may crouch in the thicket, but he is 
not safe; he may seek rest and sleep, but he is startled 
by the baying of the hound upon his trail; there is 
no rest, no sleep, no security, for the sound of the 
pursuer is ever in his ears! Or man's sin is like a 
trusted but treacherous friend, whom he has taken 
into his confidence, has given possession of his most 
hidden thoughts and uncovered purposes and sup- 
posed his secrets were safe, but no sooner has he 
learned enough to destroy him than he betrays and 
ruins him! 

All these similitudes are suggested by the language 
of the text, "Be sure your sin will find you out." Like 
a detective or hound, it will pursue and discover you; 
or, like a treacherous confidant, it will expose you. 
It will in some way cause you to be found out either 
by God or man, or both by your Maker and your 
fellow-men. 



THE GOLDEN POT. gz 

First. Some means used to conceal sin. Some ways 
by which the sinner is sure to be found out. 

Ever since Adam and Eve sought to cover them- 
selves with fig leaves and hide among the trees of 
the garden, mankind have labored most diligently to- 
conceal their real character and condition. They are 
far more ashamed of being detected in sin than they 
are of having committed sin, far more anxious to 
have the good opinion of their fellow-men than to be 
good and secure the favor of God. Scarcely have 
reason and conscience been sufficiently developed for 
the child to know the difference between good and 
evil, innocence and guilt, than this disposition is shown,. 
and it clings to us all through life. We think we can 
hide our sin from ourselves, from our fellow-men, 
and even from God Himself! This proves the exist- 
ence of conscience and that man has naturally some 
sense of the evil and guilt of sin. Many expedients 
are employed to hide sin; among the first of these is 
lying. Sin employed to conceal sin. Innocence and 
truth are never employed for such a purpose — they 
would scorn such service. But sin begets sin, and 
calls in the aid of sin to hide it. This is about as wise 
as a thief, to hide one stolen coat, putting another 
stolen coat on top of it! About as wise as if a thief 
should himself employ two detectives instead of one 
to hunt for him. As if a man, to keep a secret, should 
tell it to two treacherous friends instead of one; for 
the lie and the sin it was intended to hide will both 
find him out. Sin was introduced into our world 
through a lie, and the first transgression was sought 
to be covered, or excused, by an evasion that bordered 
very closely on falsehood. Adam sought to clear 
himself by charging it on Eve, and she by charging it 



92 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



upon the serpent, but both the crime and the evasive 
excuse were discovered, yet ever since that day other 
sins have been shielded and perpetuated by the sin 
of falsehood. Although this is the thinnest and silliest 
covering, yet it is the one most frequently resorted to. 
When a child has done wrong, nothing offers itself 
as a screen so readily, and nothing will the devil more 
surely suggest, than a lie, and this the parent should 
early warn the child against and by every means 
correct in it. Only teach your child to scorn to lie, 
and you may cultivate that nobleness of soul that will 
save it from many other vices. Lying is the first and 
the most common expedient to hide sin; there is 
-scarcely a sin sought to be concealed in our world 
but it is covered over with the thin, cold sheet of a 
lie. Under this head we include all prevarication, 
evasion, deceit, all that have this design; they are all 
-of the same species of which the lie is the genus. 

Second. Darkness is another means by which men 
hope to hide their sin. As light is the emblem of truth 
and purity, darkness is the type of guilt and error. 
Purity and truth love the day; they have an inherent 
brightness and beauty that are lovely and willing to 
be seen; but darkness is favorable to deeds of shame 
and guilt. Therefore, like the day-blinded owl, and 
prowling beasts of prey, under the shadow of night, 
the libertine, the drunkard, the gambler, the thief, 
and other criminals of kindred crime, gather to their 
prey and crowd their dens of infamy, as if the darkness 
around them were an effectual shield from the eye 
of God and man. If God at the midnight hour should 
■flash daylight into the guilty conclave of vile men, 
they would scatter and skulk away as a detected dog 
or a sneaking wolf, that has failed to reach his den 



THE GOLDEN POT. 93. 

before sunrise. Says our Saviour, "Every one that 
doeth evil hateth the light." 

The wicked regard light, or truth, as their worst 
enemy, and darkness and falsehood as their best 
friends. It is very suspicious when men's business 
must always be curtained about by the blackness of 
darkness, or be carried on behind screens, barred and 
bolted doors, guarded by mysterious grips and pass- 
words, and the Christian, as a child of light, is com- 
manded to "abstain from all appearance of evil," for, 
says our Saviour, "he that doeth truth," etc. There- 
fore by the apostle He says, "Have no fellowship with 
the unfruitful works of darkness." 

Man forgets or disregards the eye that seeth in 
the night as the day, and hopes under darkness and 
secrecy to sin with impunity. 

Third. Sin often tries to hide under a good name. 
It is no uncommon thing for wicked men to call "evil 
good and good evil." In its own repulsive form it 
would succeed with few, for "vice is a monster of 
such frightful mien that to be hated needs but to be 
seen." Satan would doubtless have failed with our 
first parents had he not come in the form of what was. 
then the beautiful and innocent serpent. And now r 
when he would succeed, he appears as "an angel of 
light." If any enterprise or sinful scheme would 
succeed, it must have a harmless, if not a positively 
good name. Philosopher and poet though he was, 
Shakespeare was surely mistaken when he said, "There- 
is nothing in a name." All that is good or ill is 
sometimes wrapped up in the name. In this land, 
forty years ago, call a man a lover of liberty and 
you canonized him; call him an anti-slavery man, and 
he was much less respected; call him an abolitionist, 



94 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



and thousands, who were totally ignorant of the mean- 
ing of the word, would class him with the devil him- 
self. Under the sacred name of constitution and 
liberty, tyranny and treason have hidden their horrid 
murderous faces. Oh, liberty, such deeds have been 
done in thy name as might make the ironhearted 
despot blush for shame! Call the unmanned slave a 
bondman, only a servant, and sweet pity will dry 
her tears; call slavery a missionary school for Africa, 
and the middle-passage loses half its horrors, the 
plantation pollution is forgotten, the knout and whip- 
ping post is nothing more than the school-master 
chastising his pupil with a birchen rod! Treason 
must always hide his bloody dagger under the holy 
guise of friendship. Under the name of virgin chas- 
tity, brothels have become nunneries, and professed 
abstinence has covered up the filthiest of debauchery. 
See the clutching, eager miser, toiling in the last 
beams of day, and keeping sleepless vigil over his 
gains; but he is not avaricious, O, no, he is only 
industrious and economical! See the man lingering 
-over his wine glass, chattering the most senseless rant; 
but he is not intemperate, he is only generous and 
social. The most unmitigated pride and selfishness 
have been masked under the name of charity; sweet 
charity, thou hast indeed been made to cover sins, a 
multitude, that were little less than inferno's worst. 
In the holy name of religion, what deeds of horror 
have been done! On St. Bartholomew's Day the 
streets of Paris ran red with gore in religion's name. 
In the gloomy Tower of London the head's man lifted 
his ax, and the fires of Smithfield burned in religion's 
name. As the forged check passes at the bank 
because it has a good name on it, so evil passes in 
the name of good; this is a very common shield for sin. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 95 

Fourth. Sin is often hidden under a fair profession 
of faith and holiness. Under this mask, persons seem 
to think they can hide their sin from both God and 
their fellow-men. They sometimes succeed in hiding 
it from themselves, perhaps to their destruction. 
Oftentimes impenitence and unbelief are hidden in the 
Church. Men profess their repentance and join the 
Church and say, "Well, my neighbors will think I 
am penitent and hate all sin. I hope I do hate it 
some, and surely God will think so, for I have joined 
the Church!" Another might justly say, "I know 
I do not believe many things the Bible says, but my 
neighbors will think I do, and truly I do believe some 
of it, enough, I hope, to save, and that God will count 
me among believers, for I have joined the Church." 
Go to a professor's house to spend the night; a bless- 
ing must be asked on the food, and family worship in 
the evening, perhaps the morning too, for he wants to 
keep up the character of a professor, he wants to 
Delieve he is penitent, believing and spiritual-minded; 
especially, he wants his neighbors to think so. Surely 
in their sober, thoughtful moments such persons know 
they cannot hide their impenitency, unbelief and car- 
nality from God; but they are so anxious to hide the 
sin they know it is a shame to love, that they wear this 
mask. Poor, silly souls! They ruinously deceive 
themselves, but neither God nor their fellow-men. 
Don't call that man covetous, or avaricious. True, 
lie does drive a bargain pinchingly close with both 
rich and poor, and docks his servants if they miss a 
day, even if it is to go to church, and toils unceasingly 
from morn to night, from year to year, and is amassing 
wealth; but he has consecrated his riches to the 
Tiappiness of man and the glory of God by a pro- 



96 THE GOLDEN POT. 

fession; don't call him worldly-minded, he only loves 
the world for Christ's sake, and the man really hopes 
his profession will secure him such a lenient judgment 
as this. 

That lady in rustling" silk or glossy satin, who 
brushes heedlessly by the sister in shilling calico, and 
walks the aisle as stiffly as if her spine were an iron 
bar, and would never think of offering her pew to 
cheap prints — do not call her proud nor haughty, she 
has crucified the world by a profession, at least she 
hopes so, and hopes you will think so. Don't call 
that man ambitious; true, he would like to have 
"Doctor of Divinity" appended to his name or "Hon- 
orable" prefixed, but he only desires to climb the 
mountain summit that he may lift the cross upon that 
eminence, that greater multitudes may see it. Oh, 
no, he does not love fame, this world to him is all 
vain show, for he is an humble professor, striving for 
an incorruptible crown! Thus men often try with 
the thin, cold veil of a profession to hide impenitency, 
unbelief, selfishness, pride, avarice and ambition. But 
all these expedients are most futile to hide your sin. 
Lying, darkness, secrecy, a good name, a fair profes- 
sion, are all veils too thin and full of holes to hide 
the ugly face of sin. You may possibly hide it from 
yourself, and partially from your fellow-men for a time, 
but you have hidden nothing from God, and only 
for a time, and very imperfectly, from your fellow- 
men. 

Second. Some ways by which the sinner is found 
out. 

Men are often exposed by the countenance, the 
expression and motions of the body. Sinners would 
be much more secure if thev had an iron or marble 



THE GOLDEN POT. 97 

face, that would take no impression from the soul. 
The countenance and body are great revealers of the 
heart's secrets; all the motions of the hands, the feet, 
the eyes, the tongue, are meaning gestures. Says 
Solomon, "A wicked man winketh with his eyes, 
speaketh with his feet and teacheth with his fingers." 
The wrinkles of the brow, the curve of the mouth, 
the more delicate lines of the face, the tints and con- 
ditions of the skin, all have a tell-tale language of 
things within. If disease is preying upon the vitals, 
you know it by the pallor and languor of the counte- 
nance and feebleness in the step. If a man has 
bruised eyes, scarred features and marks of human 
teeth upon his hands and face, you know there is a 
quarrelsome, doggish soul within, as well as if you 
saw it. Men think their sins of avarice, licentiousness, 
pride, dishonesty, gluttony, etc., are buried in their 
hearts deep from the sight of man; not so: they are 
stamped upon the face and form as clearly and in- 
effaceably as the expression the sculptor has chiseled 
upon the marble statue. A well known author has 
said, "A thief has a skin different from another man; 
a man that steals, and thinks steal all the time, has a 
nasty look — his face has a moist, clammy appearance; 
while the face of one who thinks right and noble 
thoughts is clear and glowing." You look into the 
face of a sensualist or inebriate and see the work of 
the inner fires in the slavering mouth, the flabby, 
bloated flesh and the bleared, parchment-like skin. 
You read of the cold, sinister smile of avarice, the 
cunning leer of deceit and treachery, the averted, 
downcast look of shame or guilt. You say of a man, 
"I would not like to trust that man." Why? "I can 
hardly tell you, but there is something in the tones of 



98 THE GOLDEN POT. 

his voice, something in his countenance and manner, 
that awakens suspicion whenever I talk with him; 
I would not choose him for a partner in business or 
suffer him to run a large account on my books." You 
say of another man, "He has a straight, firm, decided 
step, an open countenance, a candid tone — I think 
he is an upright man." True, by skill and practice, 
the countenance may be made to counterfeit the 
nobler expressions of the soul, but its baseness, by 
close scrutiny, may be detected, for it is difficult to 
make the face, the voice, the manners, all to lie. 
Some persons never get the confidence of others, they 
have so long indulged sensual, dishonest, selfish, 
ignoble thoughts and feelings, that they have stamped 
themselves upon the external person, so that all can 
read them, though they know not how. Think not 
your sin is hidden in your heart — it is advertising to 
the world its place and business unmistakably, and we 
are unskillful in reading the writing on the human 
form only because every face bears the prints of sin 
and every heart is more or less imperfect and impure. 

2d. By the company they keep. 

An old adage, "Birds of a feather flock together — 
a man is known by the company he keeps.'" It is 
certain that business and duty may sometimes compel 
a person to be seen in evil company. It was a charge 
the enemies of our Saviour brought against Him, that 
He received sinners, and ate with them, that He 
appeared to be familiar with them; duty and com- 
passion led Him, as their physician, among them, and 
the same may take His followers to-day among the 
most polluted. But this charge would never have 
been made against Jesus had it not been regarded as 
a sign of love for sin, and it was the only sign they 



THE GOLDEN POT. 99 

could find in Him. Wicked men sneer at and ridicule 
pious company, but they are never ashamed of being 
seen in such company; they may dislike their godless 
companions to see them in Christian circles, but shame 
is not the feeling of their souls; it is sneaking, moral 
cowardice. You may hear an arrested criminal say, 
"I depend much upon the testimony in my favor of 

good, old elder D , for I am known to visit there 

frequently!" A shrewd business man wishes to 
employ a book keeper or cashier, or secure a partner; 

he calls a witness, "Do you know young G ?" 

"Yes." "Is he upright, diligent, trusty?" "I can't 
say I know anything against him." "What kind of 
company does he keep? Does he attend the theatre, 
Trimble's Varieties? Does he visit saloons or faro 
banks?" "Not very often, perhaps." "Enough, 
enough, I do not want him at all; if he does not love 
•drinking, gambling, profanity, etc., etc., why go in 
such company?" Young man, young woman, you 
may not be known to be immoral, infidel or vicious, 
Tjut your heart is revealing itself by the company you 
keep, on the street, in the social or political circle, 
and in vain you may deny the charge, your sin is 
finding you out. "He that walketh with wise men 
shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall fall." 

3d. By the unfaithfulness of accomplices, sin finds 
out the sinner. Sin, by its corrupting influence upon 
the heart, has destroyed absolute confidence among 
men. Almost every one under certain circumstances 
will doubt his neighbor; suspicion is aroused and kept 
vigilant by frequent treachery reported, and because 
every man knows in his own soul that he is not a safe 
confidant under all circumstances. Is it any wonder 
this is so? He who will be unfaithful to the trust 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



the great God, is it any wonder that when profit, 
revenge or preferment may be the reward, we should 
doubt his fidelity to his fellow-men? If your course 
is honorable and upright, such as an enlightened con- 
science and the law of God would sanction, if your 
actions are noble and true, such as will neither dis- 
honor God, degrade yourself nor injure your fellow- 
men, you need not blush when the sun rises, nor fear 
when it sets, neither need you always go alone in your 
work or pleasures. But if men wish to be safe and 
hide their guilt, they should have no confederates in 
wickedness, they will and ought to doubt every wit- 
ness, because many reasons might induce them to- 
open their mouths concerning it sometimes. Gain, 
revenge and preferment, are strong motives on the 
depraved heart, and a natural disposition to tattle 
makes all mankind (and womankind, too, I suppose) 
unsafe. Suppose you wish to step into the bar and 
take a dram — you want to hide the fact, too? Yes, 
I know you do, for you know it is no advantage to 
yourself or the community, you know it is a mean, 
degrading, dangerous habit, and that you are en- 
couraging a traffic that is the curse of our land and 
destroying its thousands. You want to hide your 
drinking therefore? Well, do not take any one with 
you then, and do not let the barkeeper know it either, 
for barkeepers love to boast sometimes what respect- 
able and pious men patronize them — the safest way is 
just to steal it, and that is very hazardous; it will 
assuredly be found out some day. You wish to take 
a game at cards, to gamble a little? Take the pack 
and slip off to some old, deserted house or barn, and 
play by yourself, if you do not wish to be found out.. 



THE GOLDEN POT. ioi 

If you wish to follow sinful, shameful practices, pursue 
them alone; there are several advantages in this, then 
you need not be afraid of every one you meet, lest 
the deed has been told, and you will not corrupt others 
and drag them down to reproach you in hell. A 
sinful secret is safe with no one, for a Christian should 
not promise to keep it, and sinful companions are not 
to be trusted. 

4th. Sin often finds persons out by its fruits. It is 
•a ver)' fruitful thing — never was an evil tree planted 
that was barren; great the quantity and great the 
variety of its fruit — but such its peculiar nature and 
flavor that it is always known to be the fruit of sin. 
It is sometimes very beautiful to the eye, but, like 
Dead Sea apples, turns to ashes on the lips. It is a 
very bitter fruit. Jeremiah said to Jerusalem, "This 
is thy wickedness, for it is bitter." Like the little 
book in the angel's hand, it may be sweet in the 
mouth, but is bitter in the soul. When sinners are 
made to eat the fruit of their own doings, they often 
find their meat is gall. Ask the convicted sinner, 
whose soul is harrowed with a sense of guilt, if it is 
not an evil and bitter thing to sin against God? Sin 
will bear its fruit of sorrow, shame and suffering, and 
by this it is often found out. Deep darkness may have 
curtained the deed, but its fruit will grow up in the 
light of the sun. The secret tippler, the libertine, 
gambler and assassin, often find the fruit of their 
doings hanging in clusters, so that all can see it. You 
may bury sin, like the acorn, in the earth, but it will 
sprout, burst the soil and shoot up into the light of 
day. We long tried to hide our great national sin. 
We laid over it the clean linen of religion, we wrapped 
It up in the starry flag of freedom, we drowned the 



102 THE GOLDEN POT. 

cry of wrong with the louder shouts of liberty. The 
Church tried to do the work of her Head and King 
and bring good out of evil. Our free Church and free 
press and free schools and open Bibles and our liberal 
laws and all our free institutions were the source of 
so much good that we seemed to think the evil was 
surely hidden. We pointed to the Church in the land, 
growing in numbers and wealth, increasing mission- 
aries all over the earth and multiplying her agencies 
and societies for the spread of the Gospel and blessed 
with great revivals at intervals, and we said, "Surely 
this is not a nation laden with iniquity." We pointed 
to our prosperity in arts, commerce and manufactories, 
unparalleled growth in numbers, intelligence, great- 
ness, wealth and power, and we asked proudly, "Is 
this the fruit of sin?" But we were made to feed on 
the apples of Sodom and gather the grapes of Gomor- 
rah, and they were a bitter cluster. Treason and 
rebellion, mourning, desolation and death, wealth 
decreasing more rapidly than it increased, commerce 
and manufactories paralyzed, the churches mangled 
and defiled, bloody fields, desolate homes, aching 
hearts, tearful eyes weeping for loved ones that can 
never return — are some of the bitter fruits that found 
out our sin. And God grant we may not now be found 
planting poppies and nightshade in our Mormon and 
Indian policy, for we know "the curse causeless will 
not come." 

5th. Lastly, God often unmasks and exposes sin 
by His Word, Spirit and providence. You may teach 
the face, voice and all motions of the body to belie 
the heart, as the harlot may paint and adorn her 
polluted form, or as the ruddy hue of health may tinge 
the cheek, while consumption is devouring within; 



THE GOLDEN POT. 103 

you may keep the company of the good while you 
iove the evil and your fellow-men never discover your 
wickedness; but God can and often does unveil guilt 
to the guilty themselves and to the world in mar- 
vellous ways. In mercy, God often, by His Word and 
Spirit, uncovers the guilty heart to the sinner's own 
inner sight — then truly sin finds out the sinner! Be- 
fore he thought there was some good in him, now he 
sees he is wholly vile! Before he thought his demerit 
not great, now he sees he deserves only utmost wrath. 
Before he felt himself in little danger, now he sees 
himself helpless and hopeless in the hands of a just 
God, and blessed are they whose sins are thus in their 
own sight unveiled by the Spirit of God, for they flee 
to the only safe hiding place. God often, by the 
strange unfoldings of His providence, brings to light 
sin that had entrenched itself in the strongest security. 
The sons of Jacob supposed their crime against their 
brother secure from detection. Reuben, who would 
have delivered him out of the pit, knew not he was 
sold into Egypt; their old father had been effectually 
deceived by his torn, bloody coat; Joseph is a slave to 
the bloody Ishmaelites, and can live but a few years, 
and they will certainly hear nothing more of the 
ambitious dreamer. Years pass away, they are driven 
into Egypt for food ; there God brings them into such 
distress that they are forced to confess, "We were 
verily guilty concerning our brother." Joseph ap- 
pears in honor there, Jacob is brought down, the whole 
crime is unveiled, and they are indeed made to bow 
before the dreamer. 

David was guilty of a most heinous crime against 
a brave and faithful officer. He sought first to hide 
it by cunning; that failed; then he used the sword 



104 THE GOLDEN POT. 

of murder to secure himself against discovery, but 
the grave could not hide the crime; God dragged it 
to light and punished it in Absalom's rebellion. Dr. 
Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, was one day walking in 
the cemetery. He came to where the old sexton was 
digging a grave; the sexton had struck into the side 
of an old grave and threw up a skull; the doctor 
picked it up and found a headless nail sticking in the 
temple. Unnoticed by the sexton, he drew it out 
and wrapped it in his handkerchief. He asked the 
grave digger if he knew whose skull that was? He 
said he did; that it was the skull of a man who kept a 
brandy shop on a certain street, and after drinking 
a quart of ardent spirits one night, was found dead 
in his bed next morning. "Had he a wife?" asked 
the doctor. "Yes." "What kind of a woman is she?" 
"O, a good enough woman, I guess; but her neighbors 
talk about her because she married the next day after 
her husband was buried." The doctor visited the 
woman, introduced the subject of her husband's death; 
the woman, supposing herself secure and suspecting 
nothing, talked freely on the subject and told him 
the manner and suddenness of her husband's death 
by drinking. .As she told this, the doctor unwrapped 
the nail from his handkerchief, and with a firm, stern 
voice said, "Woman, do you know this nail? I took 
it from your husband's temple!" Conscience stricken 
at the unexpected question, she confessed that she 
had murdered her husband! 

Sin will be uncovered; it cannot be buried; God is 
against it. You may deny its possession of your 
heart, yet it will canker there and compel an acknowl- 
edgment sooner or later. All things in heaven and 
earth, animate and inanimate, conspire against the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 105 

hiding of sin. Go where you will, guilt will cleave 
to you like a Nemesis; your heart, tortured by the 
burning plague within, cannot keep its own secret; in 
the language of Webster, "It is false to itself," or, 
rather, it feels an irresistible impulse to be true to 
itself. It labors under its guilty possession and knows 
not what to do with it. The human heart was never 
made for the residence of such an inhabitant. It 
finds itself preyed on by a torment which it does not 
•acknowledge to God or man. A vulture is devouring 
it and it can ask for no sympathy nor assistance from 
earth or heaven. The secret possessed soon comes 
to possess him, and like the evil spirit, overcomes him 
and leads him whithersoever it will. He feels it 
Treating at his heart, rising to his throat and demanding 
disclosure; the fatal secret struggles violently to burst 
forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed — 
there is no refuge from confessing but suicide, and 
"suicide is confession." Remember, Solomon says, 
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso 
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy," 
Proverbs xxviii: 13. When sin finds out sinners, they 
want to be hidden from the face of the Judge, Rev. 
vi: 16. 



VII. 

Shall the Bible be Expelled from the School 
House? 

" Why, what evil hath He done f" Matthew xxvii: 23. 

If the Bible has clone or is doing any evil in the 
schools, Jesus Christ must bear the blame; it is His 
doing, for the Book is His, He is the author of it, 
and has endorsed and approved its contents from 
Genesis to Revelation. Therefore you see the pro- 
priety of using this text for my inquiry, for the treat- 
ment the Book has received implies that it has and 
will be harmful in the school house, and should be 
expelled; then Jesus Christ is the offender, and when 
this expulsion is demanded we have a right to ask, 
Why, what evil hath He done? Twenty-five years 
ago the city of Chicago expelled it from her schools, 
and the Legislature of Illinois was presented a bill 
reading thus: 

"That it shall be unlawful for any Board of Educa- 
tion, School Board, or Boaid of Directors, to cause or 
allow to be read the Bible or any version thereof." 

The following was the Cincinnati action: 

"Resolved, That the reading of the Bible, as well as 
singing of religious songs in the schools, should no 
longer be tolerated; it is the duty to reject everything 
repulsive to the youthful mind, of which the reading 
of the Bible stands in the front rank." 

And recently a dogberry judge on the Supreme 
Bench of Wisconsin declares the Bible cannot be 
used in the schools because it is a sectarian book! 



THE GOLDEN POT. 107 

The School Journal in a recent issue says: "The belief 
that the teaching of morality is not essential seems 
to be quite general in the State of New York, for 
of the sixty-one School Commissioners in this State, 
thirty-six report that no instruction in morality is 
required in schools under their care." So it seems 
that the Bible and everything that savors of religion 
must be expelled from the school house! But what 
songs may be sung there? And how are you to 
debar all religion and morality? Hon. Lyman Trum- 
bull says: Suppose they should sing the twenty-third 
Psalm. We know some consciences would be 
offended with that. Suppose they sung the songs of 
Bernard Fenelon, or Swedenborg, some consciences 
would be offended at this religion. Suppose they sing 
the songs of John Wesley, McCheyne, and Holmes; 
some consciences would be offended with that religion! 
Suppose they sing the ballads of Byron, Moore and 
Theodore Tilton; this is the devil's religion, and some 
consciences might even be offended with this. Who 
is to judge what songs are appropriate? Unless your 
board expurgated every text-book of any religious 
word, thought or feeling, and excluded Christian 
teachers from every school room, they cannot effectu- 
ally enough exclude religion to please the irreligious 
consciences of some of their tax-payers. What could 
you then teach? Not reading; for the child might 
come across the truth, "man is immortal," or "Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners," and this 
would be dangerous reading. Not grammar; for the 
pupil might have to parse the sentence, "sin is the 
transgression of the law," and, like an inquisitive 
Yankee boy, might ask, "What law is this?" Then 
the teacher would be in trouble. Not spelling and 



108 THE GOLDEN POT. ■ 

defining; unless you leave out all such words as soul, 
sin, guilt, salvation, Christ Jesus, right, wrong, hell, 
heaven, holiness, etc., for without the Bible a teacher 
cannot define these. Not writing; unless they are 
very careful what copies or sentiments they write; and 
a good many problems in arithmetic might be dan- 
gerous, and it would hardly be safe to go beyond 
teaching gymnastics, the value of a cipher on the left 
side of the figure, or the place of zero on the ther- 
mometer. Then the child would be in danger of 
asking who made it so cold. But some say the action 
is no offense to the Word of God, and casts no 
reproach or discredit on the Bible. The action has 
been called "bouncing" the Bible, "kicking it out of 
school," etc. But you may say this is only the elegant 
diction of the Chicago Times. Well, I am no admirer 
of either the rhetoric, theology, morality, or politics 
of the Times, but even the devil has been known to 
tell the truth, and even the Times has been known 
to use the right word in the right place, and to call 
things by their correct names. Suppose the board 
should forbid Webster's dictionary to be used in the 
school, would not the inference be justly made that 
it is not fit to be a standard for spelling and pronounc- 
ing the English language? Suppose Cutter's 
Anatomy and Hygiene, or any other book that had 
been for many years accepted in the school was thrust 
out — would it not be a reflection and discredit? Even 
the school children so regarded the act. The very 
day the reading and prayer was abandoned in Chicago 
I had to meet the question from my own and other 
children, "Is the Bible not a good book? Why then 
•quit reading it in school?" The action says to every 
intelligent mind of the world: The Bible is not suitable 



THE GOLDEN POT. 109 

for American schools, it is not a correct moral 
standard, its teachings cannot decide any of the great 
moral questions that concern the welfare and life of 
this mighty nation. Candid reason will admit it was 
offensively thrust out. 

Having noticed what I believe to be the animus 
and outreach of this action and the offensive manner 
of it, I now propose to discuss the wisdom and right- 
fulness of the action under this question: Shall the 
Bible be expelled from th common schools? I wish 
the question clearly stated and understood. It is not, 
Shall the Bible be fixed in the schools by statute ; not 
whether it shall be there expounded and its teachings 
enforced; no one, unless the Roman Catholic, asks- 
this. The question simply is, Shall the Bible be 
expelled from the place it has occupied for hundreds 
of years? Those in the affirmative say it should, (1) 
because its presence and reading there is offensive 
and oppressive to certain individual consciences; 
(2) because our State has no religion, and cannot favor 
or encourage any religious ideas; (3) because its 
morality is not necessary to civil education — that 
education which fits a subject of the State for his 
duties as a citizen; (4) because it is an unjust offense 
to certain consciences in a school supported by 
universal taxation. To state a few points of agree- 
ment among the parties to this controversy before 
entering on the discussion may avoid confusion in 
the argument. At least all Protestants on either side 
of this controversy, I believe, agree: 

1. That it does not belong to the State to teach 
dogmatic catechetical doctrinal religion, or give an 
exposition of the Bible. 

2. That the State may not employ its power to teach 



j I0 THE GOLDEN POT. 

or promote religion or even morality as an end. The 
.State may, and must of necessity, employ religion and 
morality as a means to secure its own proper end and 
■design, which is to conserve justice and right between 
man and man, and to promote the highest civilization, 
freedom, civil prosperity and happiness of mankind. 

3. We all agree that it is not the school teacher's 
province to expound the Bible or teach formulated 
.theology. 

4. That the State has no right to compel any citizen 
to renounce his or her conscientious convictions, or 
to act contrary to them. 

But my conscience has no right to compel or 
influence the State in any action. If my convictions 
of conscience stand in the way of the State, effecting 
her rightful and highest end, she must go right on, 
regardless of my conscience; I must simply endure 
whatever suffering may ensue from my position, until 
the State change her action, or my convictions change. 
As between me and my God, I must maintain my 
convictions of right and truth though I go down 
under them. Galileo was right when he persisted 
in saying, "The world does move," though the Inquisi- 
tion was unrelenting, and the Romish Church did not 
move. The State must seek her right ends, whatever 
personal convictions may be crossed or violated. The 
attempt to regulate the action of the State by personal 
convictions would be to load her with a thousand 
fetters, and arrest her advance at every step. So far 
as individual consciences are concerned in this matter 
of the schools, if the recognitoin of the Bible as the 
standard of morality, and its reading in the schools, 
is useful and needful to the State in promoting her 
rightful and highest end, she has a right to maintain 



THE GOLDEN POT. m 

it in her system of national education if every Roman, 
pagan, infidel atheistic and mongrel conscience in 
the land was oppressed and offended. On the other 
hand, if Bible morality is not useful or is hurtful to the 
State in promoting iustice, national purity, civilization, 
prosperity, and happiness, then she has a right to 
remove the book, if the action offends and oppresses 
every other conscience in the land. With the indi- 
vidual, religion, morality and holiness must be an 
end ; with the State, simply a means to an end. Then 
it is our right and duty to examine the influence of 
the Bible in our national schools, and this I shall 
attempt under three questions. 

First. What evil has it done? 

Second. What good will its expulsion do? 

Third. Will the expulsion do harm? 

When the Divine Author of this book was arraigned 
before Pilate, and his condemnation demanded, even 
a pagan governor thought it but just that it should 
be known why. "What evil hath He done?" Now, 
His Word is arraigned, put on trial, and put under 
the ban of condemnation, and it is but just to demand, 
why? What evil hath it done? It has been in 
schools ever since the first was organized in the new 
world. I believe the first that might be called a free 
school was organized in Boston in 1635. There the 
Bible was read twice a day by the students; and for 
two hundred years and more there has scarcely been a 
school in the land without it. From the very begin- 
ning of State education — from the very initiation of 
the common school system until the present day, this 
wonderful book has ben in every school house, with 
very few exceptions, and now it is proposed to banish 
it. Before doing so, we demand, why? What evil 



H2 THE GOLDEN POT. 

has it done? As men, as free men, as just men, Chris- 
tians, you cannot do this unless you can show that it 
does no good, or does evil and is therefore unfit to 
be used. In all this time have you found it was 
corrupting your youth? Has it disqualified them for 
being good fathers, mothers, friends and citizens? 
Has it made them less pure, honest, truthful, brave and 
patriotic? You dare not affirm this, for you know it 
inculcates and enforces with the highest authority 
all these duties; and that those who study it most, love 
it most, and practice its precepts, excel in all these 
virtues. Has it made your citizens less tolerant, 
benevolent, and law-abiding? The very reverse of 
this is true. From the teachings of this book your 
citizens have received the spirit of wise, generous 
toleration, large benevolence, and subjection to the 
powers that be, as "the ministers of God, a terror to 
evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well." "My 
Word is a hammer," saith the Lord, and in spite of all 
the perversions of ignorant or mistaken expositors, in 
spite of all the political and moneyed corruption in 
the pulpits and pews, the hammer of this book has 
broken down the strongholds of tyranny, and struck 
off the chains of slavery; and upon its truths have 
been laid the corner-stones and built up the grand 
temple of universal liberty, "throughout all the land 
and for all the inhabitants thereof." What evil has it 
done? Has its use retarded the growth of true 
science, philosophy, literature, polite learning, and 
useful knowledge of any kind? I point you to the 
best institutions of learning in the land, to their 
founders, supporters and instructors, and demand an 
answer. Are they not the believers in, and lovers of this 
book? I point you to the most profound scientists 



THE GOLDEN POT. 113 

and philosophers of the land, the most literary and 
refined, and they, too, with very few exceptions, are 
the believers in and lovers of this book. Does it 
restrain the growth of the Roman Catholic religion 
and power of the Pope over the conscience in this 
land? The Romish journals, writers and priests say 
yes, therefore they demand its exclusion. This admits 
that the Bible is against their teachings and authority; 
that they cannot endure its rays of light, its lessons 
of freedom; that theirs is a system of darkness, which 
cannot tolerate liberty of thought and conscience. 
Do Americans, does this government, desire to favor, 
to foster, to strengthen such a system? A Roman 
Catholic permitted it to be translated and circulated. 
A Roman Catholic bishop drafted the license to read 
it, until a better translation could be provided, which 
he hoped would not be until doomsday. Bishop 
Geddes, himself a Catholic and translator of the 
Scriptures, says, "It is of all versions the most excel- 
lent for accuracy, fidelity and the strictest letter of 
the text." The learned Selden, literary dictator, says, 
"It is the best version in the world." But the 
Catholics will not have even their Douay Bible to be 
in the hands of the people, which shows that it is 
not a question of versions at all, but of the Bible 
itself as being against them. But hear what the 
Bishop of Bologna writes to Pope Paul III. Speaking 
of the Catholic Church, he says: "She is persuaded 
that this is the book which, above all others, raises 
such storms and tempests. And truly, if any one read 
it and observe the customs and practices of the 
Church of Rome, he will see that there is no agree- 
ment between them, and that the doctrine which she 
preaches is altogether different, and sometimes 



H4 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



contrary to that contained in the Bible." Then let 
our Catholic citizens come out and candidly, like this 
bishop, say: We want the Bible out of the public 
schools because it is preventing the spread of Roman- 
ism. And if Americans wish to tear down the one 
impregnable bulwark against the encroachments of 
her darkness and despotism, let them expel this book 
from their system of education. If they prefer Rome's 
superstitions and dungeons to the light of Christian 
truth and liberty, let them condemn the Bible as 
guilty of a crime in opposing the Church of Rome. In 
this controversy the children of the Pope have dam- 
aged their cause by thus showing that the Bible, 
opened in the schools, is such a deadly weapon 
against them. 

But another evil it does in the schools is to offend 
and oppress the consciences of infidels, atheists, and 
rationalists. At this I am both surprised and re- 
joiced; rejoiced, because, if true, it proves their con- 
sciences are still alive; surprised, because, hearing 
such talk as may be heard among them and seeing 
their writings, I had supposed they were never 
troubled about this old volume of superstition, this 
invention of ancient priests, cunning imposters, this 
talisman of old women and weak minds. I thought 
they were too strong to be affected by the weight of 
anything it contained; that its commands could never 
give them anxiety, nor its threatenings give them any 
distress, nor its doctrines give them any concern. I 
thought they were happily delivered from all the 
qualms and terrors and oppressions of conscience, 
which this book has sometimes laid upon the souls 
of ordinary mortals. But, alas! they cannot escape 
from this strange book, any more than common 



THE GOLDEN POT. 115 

people. Here they are offended by it, sorely op- 
pressed, crying out under their oppressions, and pray- 
ing the State to give them deliverance. You all 
remember the man who found he was burning, and 
called the servant to remove the grate. The servant 
suggested that he change his place of sitting. O yes, 
he hadn't thought of that. So we say to these 
unbelieving gentlemen, if you would not be crushed 
by this stone, get out from beneath it, then it will 
not hurt you. But is the State to be guided by their 
consciences in what is needful for her good? But 
suppose the State admit that this is a crime in the 
book, and remove it from the schools, then have 
we any assurance they will not turn to the State and 
say, "Now the book is offensive and oppressive to 
us in the courts, and in the halls of legislation, and 
in the almshouses, and in the schools of reform, and 
in prisons, and in daily business, and in our asylums 
for deaf, dumb and blind; in fact, the old book is 
offensive and oppressive anywhere in the United 
States, and we demand its exile. This is a free 
country, and we will not be offended and oppressed 
by anything in it." 

But this question might arise here: Is the individual 
conscience to guide the State in her duty? If these 
gentlemen whose great business is not to believe, 
declare to the State they do believe in their consciences 
that to expel the Bible would best conserve the 
demands of justice and most promote civilization and 
freedom, must the State therefore expel it? Then, 
what must become of all the other consciences in the 
land? If the seven million Catholic consciences are to 
be respected, are the twenty millions of Protestant con- 
sciences to be disrespected? Are the few millions of 



Il6 THE GOLDEN POT. 

pagan and infidel consciences to be tenderly respected, 
and the thirty millions of believers' consciences to be 
disregarded? What an absurd idea that the State is to 
be guided in her duty by any such rule! This would 
be to fetter the freedom of the State with ten thousand 
chains, and turn personal liberty into licentiousness. 
If the Christian truth concerning God and man will 
best subserve the ends of the State, then she is bound 
to favor and adopt this, not because it is the religion 
of the Christian, but because it best secures civil self- 
government, justice, freedom, and civilization to man, 
which is the design of the State. Then, are we going 
to declare that it is a crime in the Bible to oppress 
and offend the consciences of infidels and atheists, 
and for this turn it out of school? Then you may 
oppress and offend more consciences than you free. 

But it is said the Jew is also offended by this book 
in the schools. Then I ask my Hebrew fellow- 
countrymen to go back into those lands where govern- 
ments are not founded on Christianity; where Bible 
truth does not enter into their education and civil 
institutions, and tell me what his people get there? Do 
they get freedom — civil and religious, protection for 
life, property and pursuits, and manhood equality? 
No! Then let him come back to this land where 
Christianity underlies the government and all its 
institutions; where through the common schools 
Christian truth is poured into all the national veins; 
then with a freeman's ballot in his hand, let him 
count up his blessings : full protection for his religion, 
his life, his property, his pursuits, intellectual and 
material. And with the regal coronet of manhood 
and liberty upon his brow, I ask him would he banish 
the truth which has conferred such an inheritance 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



117 



upon him? Has he reason to say such a book is 
offensive and oppressive? And the very conduct of 
the Jews in regard to our schools proves that this 
plea is put into their mouths by those who would use 
them for a purpose. But if they hold such a thought, 
justice and gratitude to their adopted country demand 
that they retract it. 

But there is another class, it is said, which the Bible 
is guilty of offending. There are several thousand 
Chinese in California. Many of them own property 
and pay taxes, and if they should hear the second 
commandment read in the schools, and that Jesus 
Christ was greater than Confucius, and that they 
ought to worship God and not idols, then the children 
will not reverence the idols they find at home, and 
the parents will be deeply offended, will complain 
that their rights and liberty of conscience is violated, 
and they will demand a division of the school fund. 
Then it is a great crime in the Bible that it cannot 
make darkness and light agree, and for such guilty 
weakness it must be turned out of school. At the 
bidding of John Chinaman this nation must put out 
its eyes, or quench the sun in the heavens. The right 
of the national conscience to light and freedom is not 
higher than the right of a personal conscience from 
the Celestial Empire! What insufferable effrontery! 
to see men fleeing from the barbarism, despotism, and 
darkness of their birth-place into this land of freedom, 
light and happiness, and before they have looked upon 
it long enough to heal their blinking, purblind vision, 
they coolly turn round to tell us that they are offended 
with the Divine foundation-stone our fathers laid 
beneath the temple of liberty, and they propose to 
remove it and place one there hewn out by Confucius, 



Il8 THE GOLDEN POT. 

or one blessed by the Pope of Rome, or one dug up. 
by Humboldt in Germany, or one taken from the 
quarries of France by Voltaire, or from some other 
place where the air of Christian freedom has never 
been breathed, or leave the temple of liberty without 
any foundation. What shameless ingratitude! Given 
a free asylum from darkness and oppression, exalted 
to the position of men, with every personal right they 
can reasonably demand most sacredly guarded, they 
are displeased. Then we say, if our Canaan don't suit 
you, go back to the flesh-pots and brick-kilns of 
Egypt; for we cannot try the hopeless experiment of 
building a nation without a God, a Sabbath, and a 
moral code, without the education of the affections 
and moral nature of man. 

But, one says, you should not say this about for- 
eigners, they have a right to a home and freedom 
here, and this country needs them. I readily concede 
their creation rights, and freedom here, but they have 
no right to arrest the freedom and right of the State 
in her freedom to perpetuate her existence in liberty 
and Christian civilization. If this is to be their work, 
this land has no need of them. 

Another reason for turning the Bible out of school 
is that it is a sectarian book! What evidence of this? 
Why, a great many don't believe in it. If that makes 
it sectarian, then the Creator is sectarian, for many 
claim they don't believe in Him ; then human freedom 
is sectarian, for many don't believe it is the rightful 
inheritance of all men. God gave His Son to the 
world, and the unbelief and rejection of Him by many 
does not disprove this truth, or make Him a sectarian 
Saviour. The Word of God is no more sectarian than 
the air that surrounds the globe, as it is the only truth 



THE GOLDEN POT. 119 

designed and adapted to give the world a pure moral 
atmosphere. It is no more sectarian than the sunlight 
that enfolds and gladdens the earth, for it is the 
only light that can enlighten the pathways and tombs 
of any land. All its great truths, principles and laws 
are as universal as the intelligent creation of God. 
But it should be turned out because it alone is 
guilty of producing discord and strife. Some people 
used to tell us that abolitionism was the sole cause 
of trouble in this land; just let slavery alone and we 
can have peace! But slavery would not let us alone, 
and now Romanism, infidelity, communism, filthiness, 
political thievery, corruption, and every deviltry that 
imperils the nation's life will not let us alone, however 
peaceable we may be. But some Protestants on the 
affirmative of the question say it is such a mere per- 
functory service, its reading has so little effect, is of 
so little value, why not give it up for the sake of peace? 
My dear Protestant brother, why can you not persuade 
your Catholic or infidel brother to reason thus: It 
is a mere perfunctory performance of no educative or 
religious influence, and we will not disturb the vast 
educational interests of the land about such a trifling 
matter? Would it not be well for these flexible 
brethren to exhort the agitators on tnat side a while, 
and read them a lesson on forbearance and charity? 
That the service is perfunctory enough we all admit; 
but this persistent clamor and obstinate opposition 
to its presence prove that its influence is felt, that its 
leaven works, that its hammer strikes, that its fire is 
burning a little at least. The mere recognition of its 
authority by commanding the school in silence to 
hear it read, has a restraining, controlling, educating 
influence! nay, more, if laid unopened upon the desk 



120 THE GOLDEN POT. 

in every school room, it would have a power, as it is 
known to be the Book of books, the Law-book of the 
King of kings, and this bitter war against it is a 
testimony to its irresistible influence, which I am 
ashamed any Protestant should attempt to hide. You 
cannot persuade a Catholic infidel that the Bible has 
no power in the schools ; they know better. The mere 
recognition of it as the perfect law of Divine justice 
and the only standard of pure morals makes it a power, 
and this is just what the infidel and rationalist especi- 
ally object to. And it is because of this salutary, 
silent, yet immeasurable power in national justice and 
morality that we protest against its expulsion from 
the educational system of the land. This charge 
against the Bible as the troubler of the school is 
about as reasonable and just as king Ahab accusing 
Elijah of troubling Israel. But the prophet's reply is, 
"I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's 
house," etc. So we say to the infidel, Teuton and 
Catholic, "The Bible is not a troubler of the schools, 
but you and your father's house at Rome." For 
two hundred years this book has been an instructor in 
the schools of the land, and we can say of it as Pilate 
did of its Author, "We find no fault in it." 

II. What good will its expulsion do? 

Henry Ward Beecher said the Bible will do a world 
of good in the schools, and no harm. Yet he was 
willing to give up this world of good for nothing. 
But you must remember he was so liberal a fellow 
he would give away almost anything that did not 
belong to him. And he was so cosmopolitan, both 
in his precepts and practice, that the world has been 
disputing for years as to what his faith and practice 
was. What good will its expulsion do? 



THE GOLDEN POT. 121 

If it can be shown that a vast amount of good will 
result, we must yield, but we must demand a great 
reward for such a sacrifice as we believe this to be. 
What good will it do? Will it be any advantage to 
Romanism? Will it encourage and promote the 
growth of papal error and power in the land? Lead- 
ing Romanists say it will, and we believe they know 
and are right in their judgment. Cardinals and 
bishops might truly say to each other, "It cost us 
armies, blood and treasure to save France from the 
Huguenots. Three centuries of persecution and war 
lias not wrested the Bible from a little band of Wal- 
denses. The Hollanders conquered us when we were 
mighty, and have kept the Bible in their schools. 
But America, in the hour of her strength and glory, 
we have taken by a fallacy. We told them that they 
had a State without religion, and they believed it. 
Nay, more, Protestant ministers came forward to help 
prove it! We also told them that, as a logical 
sequence, they have a school system without a religion, 
and they believed that too. We have struck the 
American republic the heaviest blow it has ever 
received. Slavery fought their national liberty, and 
they conquered. We assail their national religion, 
and they yield without a struggle. We have burnt 
Bibles by the hundreds and by the thousands, and 
have turned it out of schools by tens of thousands. 
Our emissaries stand at the doors of sixty-five thou- 
sand schools, and receive them from two hundred 
thousand teachers." Cardinals and bishops would 
have just ground for such language, and might afford 
the expense of several thousand Bibles to light their 
bonfires of triumph. Now, if you think the growth of 
popery good for this land, you can aid it in this way. 



122 THE GOLDEN POT. 

If it will advance knowledge, purity and happiness; 
if it will promote justice, and wealth, and peace; if it 
will spread light and freedom, then you are bound to 
do this, because for this the State was instituted. 
Will it? 

But one says it will bring the Catholic children,, 
thus give a chance to educate them intellectually at 
least, which is much better for the country than to 
have them grossly ignorant. But I think it will not 
do even this much. Catholic journals, writers, priests 
and bishops scoff at the idea that they would patronize 
schools where there is no religion. Since the expulsion 
of the Bible, Bishop McQuaid says: "These public 
schools are built by force to give education without 
God, without religion. . . . According to the 
law, God is not allowed to enter into the public 
schools." 

A priest, writing in The Boston Advertiser, says: 
"Catholics would not be satisfied if the Protestant 
Bible and every vestige of religion was banished from 
the schools." They demand that the teacher shall be 
a priest, at least a Catholic, and their version not 
simply read, but expounded — taught there; for, says 
the Catholic Tablet, "Education is the business of the 
spiritual society alone." What the Romanists desire 
is to disturb, and, if possible, destroy the whole system 
of public schools, and they are willing to co-operate 
with any and every enemy of the Bible to accomplish 
this end, hoping then, either to divide the school fund 
(as they have done in East St. Louis), or to secure 
wholly the instruction of American children. And 
other enemies of the Bible make this only the first step 
in driving Christian principles out of every civil 
institution of the land. If the Catholic wanted the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 123 

Bible out, simply that he might patronize the school 
with a good conscience, I could feel much more lenient 
towards his motive; but, believing that his object is 
only the destruction of the system, I can feel no 
sympathy. Let us hear their prominent exponents: 
The pope, who is received by his Church as the 
infallible representative of God upon earth, has sol- 
emnly declared in the syllabus that Church and State 
should be united, and that the Church should control 
the schools. The Freeman's Journal, in New York, 
says plainly that "The school tax in itself is an unjust 
imposition." The Tablet announces that it is opposed 
to "purely secular schools." The Catholic Telegraph, 
in Ohio, asserts that "It will be a glorious day for 
Catholics in this country when . . . our school system 
shall be shivered." The Catholic Columbian, the organ 
of the Roman bishop at Columbus, Ohio, says that 
"Catholic parents cannot be allowed the sacraments"' 
who send their children by preference to the public 
schools. Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, writes 
that he does not approve of the public school system. 
This is only the shadow of the Pope's big toe; his 
purpose is to set his foot upon it with crushing weight. 
But, say some, many parents, in spite of priests and : 
spiritual rulers, would send their children to the schools 
if the Bible is removed. Why do they not do it now? 
There are thousands of professedly good Catholics 
who will tell you now that the Bible question is not 
troubling them, they do not think our English version 
dangerous to their souls ; why, then, do they not send" 
their children now? Simply because of priestly 
despotism. Suppose you were to go to a genuine 
Catholic to-day and ask if the Bible was removed from 
the schools and the priest and Pope should forbid 



124 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



you to send your children, would you send them? 
No. They would cease to be Catholic if they did. By 
such an act of disobedience they would trample under 
foot the fundamental law of papal authority, and these 
parents would soon find themselves excommunicated, 
or made to feel such penalties as would either compel 
them to retract, or break their ecclesiastical connection 
forever; and with such maledictions and social ostra- 
cism threatening them, how many would dare disobey? 
The experience of the past clearly shows there would 
be few, very few, too few to justify such a concession 
as this. No, it is the principle of State schools, and 
the Bible among the people, that Romanism is op- 
posed to. How many go when the Bible is put out? 
Says the Freeman's Journal (Catholic) : "If the Catholic 
translation of the books of Holy Writ were to be 
dissected by the ablest Catholic indorsement, and these 
admirable Bible lessons alone to be read in the public 
schools, this would not diminish the objections we 
Catholics have to the public schools. The Catholic 
solution of this muddle about the Bible or no Bible 
in schools is 'hands off.' You take care of your chil- 
dren and we will take care of ours. Let the public 
school system go where it came from — the devil. 
You will catch few Catholics by expelling the Bible." 
It will do no good in this way. What other good 
will it do? Will it aid infidelity and atheism by re- 
moving a most impregnable barrier to their progress 
out of the way? Will it be any advantage to the 
creed of rationalists? They all certainly believe it 
will or they would not so earnestly demand it, so 
persistently contend for its expulsion. And they are 
certainly justified in thinking so. When this is done 
they can turn round and say, "Now the world can see 



THE GOLDEN POT. 125 

that free, enlightened America is with us; they have 
kicked the old filthy book of superstition out of their 
schools as unfit for the people to read, but Buckle, 
Combe, Draper and Darwin, Huxley, Mill and 
Spencer are kept in many schools of the higher grade. 
Now it will not be difficult for us to persuade the lads 
and lasses of this land that the God and Redeemer 
of this book is a myth, and that it is simply a jumble 
of mythology, allegory and superstition." Whenever 
they can get the State to cease teaching the Bible as 
the Word of God, and as the standard of justice and 
morality, and get it to stop appealing to it as such, 
that moment they make the State, to a certain degree, 
an ally of their infidelity. Disguise it as you may, 
this exclusion of the Bible from our public schools 
is a measure in the interest of Romanism, rationalism 
and infidelity; not simply a neutral position between 
these and Protestantism; for they have combined 
harmoniously together to press this end to its complete 
accomplishment. Italy, to-day, is nothing but a mix- 
ture of superstition and of bold unbelief. In France, 
the professed religion of the establishment and of the 
uneducated masses is Romanism; while that of the 
elite and learned is open infidelity. 

Now, if the condition of crushed Italy and restless, 
tottering France is better than a firm Christian repub- 
lic, then you can get this good by excluding the Bible! 
Is this the good you promise yourselves by this 
measure? I think not. But, perhaps, you say this 
will bring peace and safety to the distracted and im- 
periled system of common schools. Let us see. There 
are several millions of Protestants in this land who 
believe with all the power of deep conviction that the 
morality of the Bible, infused into the national life 



j 26 THE GOLDEN POT. 

.through her educational institutions, is essential to her 
safety, her very being; that intellectual culture without 
Christian morality is a curse rather than a blessing; 
that paganism, Romanism, rationalism or utter god- 
lessness, is not as good for a nation as Christianity; 
that the principles of Christianity underlie the whole 
superstructure of the republic; therefore they believe 
that this measure imperils not only the morality, 
strength and prosperity, but the very life of their 
country. But you say these infidels, Jews, Romanists, 
etc., are so strong and obstinate in their conviction 
they will not yield. 

But these millions of Protestants have such weak 
convictions, or else their religion has taught such 
charity and forbearance, or, in other words, has made 
them such poltroons, they will yield their mostprecious 
principles for sake of peace! Ah, indeed! When 
was this astounding discovery made? Those who 
think thus have either never read history, or have read 
it in vain. If it teaches any one thing clearly, it is that 
Christians never yield a moral principle. They love 
peace. They are followers of the Prince of peace; 
but they have been taught by Him that peace only 
comes through freedom founded on pure moral truth, 
and whenever you make your schools a place where 
the Author of Christianity cannot be spoken of, or 
only spoken of as a historic character, like Mohammed, 
or Julius Caesar, or Napoleon ; where the child cannot 
be told that the great teacher and preacher was God; 
where he cannot be told that he has a soul, and there is 
a code of morality higher than human statutes and 
police records; when you remove from your schools 
everything that can offend a Jew, Mohammedan, 
Chinaman or common infidel, then these twenty mil- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 127 

lion Protestants will withhold their children and put 
them into schools of their own, where they can learn 
-such truth as will fit them for free self-government, 
and qualify them to preserve and perpetuate liberty, 
republicanism and Christianity. You are pushing the 
only measure that can break the common school 
-system of this country into ruinous fragments. 

But some make this kind of argument: There is 
plenty of room outside the common school to teach the 
Bible. Educate in morality and religion in the family, 
the Sabbath school and the Church, and let the State 
school educate only the citizen. Now, this argument 
either implies that children only need moral instruction 
because they are to be men, not because they are to 
be citizens, or it implies that the State should delegate 
this part of her duty to the Church, and hold her 
responsible for this part of the citizen's education, 
thus uniting Church and State. Thus the State, while 
taxing the people to fit the children for citizenship, 
asks the family, Sabbath school and Church to do this 
part of her work gratuitously. Certainly it is the duty 
of the Church, if within her power, to give moral and 
religious instruction to every immortal soul, because 
it is a rational and immortal soul, and not because it is 
a citizen. If the moral, practical principles of Chris- 
tianity are needful to be known and practiced to make 
the best citizen (and few thoughtful persons will deny 
this), then it is the duty of the State, for her own sake, 
to have these taught, whoever may object. And there 
are thousands of children that are soon to be citizens 
with fearful power in this land, who are not taught any 
of these principles in the family, and whom the Church 
and the Sabbath school cannot reach, and whom for 
her own sake and for the life and welfare of the nation, 



128 THE GOLDEN POT. 

the State should reach even if it be by a species of 
compulsion. The State should do her duty whether 
the Church does hers or not. And having taxed the 
people to enable her to do the work of educating 
citizens, she cannot turn that over to any other 
organization. 

Another, a clergyman, comforts us with the thought 
(as if he had made a discovery) that God can take care 
of and vindicate His own truth. So He can take care 
of the city, State and nation; so we had better abdicate 
every position and duty He has required of us and tell 
Him, as He has the power, to attend to matters and 
give us no trouble! He took care of the antediluvian 
world, and of Sodom, and of the kingdom of Israel. 
And if we cast off all reverence for His fear, and 
respect for His authority and law, He may take care 
of our city as of Sodom, and of our nation as of 
shivered Israel; but if we don't desire to fall into the 
care of insulted justice, it would be better to know 
and regard the principles of eternal justice and right. 

But some say although we expel the Bible from the 
schools, yet we intend to have its morality taught in 
them. We intend to teach our future citizens integrity, 
truthfulness, honor, honesty, virtue and purity. This 
is strange! You are going to teach the principles of 
the book, yet expel the book and deny that it is a 
standard of justice and morals. You are going to 
teach law according to Blackstone as the only standard, 
yet leave Blackstone out! You are going to teach 
the principles of the constitution of the United States, 
yet discard it as a standard, and forbid the reading 
of it! This is worse than the play of Hamlet with 
Hamlet left out. You propose to steal the morals of 
the Bible and not let any one know where you get 



THE GOLDEN POT. 129 

them, then teach your scholars not to steal! Suppose 
the teacher tries to teach the young Yankee he should 
not lie; it is wrong. Who says it is wrong? God 
says it is wrong. How do you know? Did He tell 
you? His law says so. Where? I would like to 
see the book; for my pap says it is sometimes right 
to lie; that one of the wisest men, Plato, said men 
might lie if they knew how to do it ! Suppose she tries 
to teach another he should not steal, but he says, I 
would like to see the papers for that; for I heard my 
father say it is no great crime for a man to steal 
a little from another who has lots more than he has; 
and he said that Austippus, a very learned man among 
the ancients, said, "A wise man might steal when he 
could without crime wronging others." When you 
propose to teach morals you will find you need a 
statute book, and a recognized, rightful authority 
behind the precepts to give them force upon the con- 
science. They who hope to keep all the morals and 
virtues of Christianity, yet expel its statute book, are 
deceiving themselves with mere words and names. 

On but one principle can we sustain common 
school education, so essential to our national per- 
petuity, and that is by starting on the principle that we 
are a Christian country, and that heathenism, infidelity 
and all kindred systems, must submit to the preference 
of Christianity. Said the great Webster: "Objection 
to the multitude and differences of sects is but the old 
story, the old infidel argument." It is notorious that 
there are great religious truths which are admitted 
and believed by all Christians; and cannot all these 
great truths be taught to children without their minds 
being perplexed with crushing doctrines and sectarian 
controversies? And I assure you these truths form 



130 THE GOLDEN POT. 

the trunk from which grow out all the moralities and 
virtues of life as branches. Without them no moral 
life or force can be put into the character of the pupils 
and citizens you are educating. And Protestants 
cannot support a system without these. Then, instead 
of peace, this expulsion will produce utter ruin. It 
can do no possible good, but will do great evil. 

This brings me to the last query proposed: 

III. What evil will its expulsion do? 

I have already mentioned incidentally several evils 
that will result from this exclusion. Among these I 
will refer again to the fact that it will not only give 
an advantage to Romanism and every form of error, 
skepticism and unbelief, but it will offend and alienate 
the oldest and firmest supporters of our common 
school system; that is, the genuine Protestants of 
the land. Careful inquiry will show beyond cavil that 
these have ever been the originators, supporters and 
defenders of this grand system of public instruction. 
Dr. Clark, of Albany, truly says: "Common schools 
are the offspring of Protestantism; we have them be- 
cause we are not under the domination of the Pope. 
Romanism is the enemy of common schools, of 
popular education in every form. The glory of our 
system is universal education; that of Rome, universal 
ignorance. The meridian of Romish ascendency was 
the midnight of the world's history." Is it wise, is it 
safe, to offend and alienate these old, tried friends? 
Could you get the support of even seven million 
Romanists (granting there are so many), by offending 
and losing fifteen to twenty or thirty million Protes- 
tants, as a mere matter of policy, would this be wise 
and safe? Is there not a danger here worth guarding 
against? 



THE GOLDEN POT. 131 

Another evil is, you banish from your schools the 
best book, in a mere literary point of view, that the 
world contains. Said Sir William Jones, "These Holy 
Scriptures contain more true sublimity, more exquisite 
beauty, more pure morality, more important history, 
and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can 
be collected from all other books, in whatever age or 
language they may have been written." Said Dr. 
Fisher Ames, a distinguished American statesman, 
"I will hazard the assertion that no man ever did, or 
•ever will become truly eloquent without being a con- 
stant reader of the Bible and an admirer of the purity 
.and sublimity of its language." Said Daniel Webster, 
"I have read through the entire Bible many times. 
It is the book of all others for lawyers as well as divines; 
and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply 
of thought, and of rules for his conduct. It fits a man 
for life ; it prepares him for death." John Locke says, 
"It has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and 
truth without any mixture of error for its matter." 
Says an eminent Catholic writer, "The uncommon 
"beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant Bible 
is one of the great strongholds of heresy in this coun- 
try! It lives on the ear like the music that can never 
be forgotten, like the sound of church bells which 
the convert hardly knows how to forego. Its felicities 
often seem to be almost things, rather than words. 
The power of all the griefs and trials of a man is hidden 
beneath its words. It is the representation of his best 
moments, and all that there has been about him of 
soft, and gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good, 
speaks to him forever out of his English Bible." 
Chalmers, Webster, Coleridge and Carlyle agree in 
•saying that the inspired book of Job is the sublimest 



132 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



poem in the possession of mankind! And Dr. Frank- 
lin, for the most beautiful pastoral story ever penned, 
selected the book of Ruth. To rob the citizen pupils 
of such a literary treasure should cover the nation with 
shame. To forbid any child in the land to read it 
in school would dishonor our country before the whole 
literary world. We protest against such an unjust, 
ignorant, disgraceful edict as this would be! 

But worse than this, you banish the only book that 
can teach and enforce with authority pure moral truth 
upon the conscience and heart. Our opponents all 
say, certainly morality should be taught in the school. 
For our citizens to lie, and steal, and swear, and get 
drunk, and break the seventh commandment, would 
ruin the country. For our politicians, statesmen, 
rulers and judges to take bribes and sell their votes, 
and embezzle public funds, and gamble, and plot 
treason, and rebel against the authority of the govern- 
ment, would soon ruin the State. Certainly, morality 
should be taught. . Then we ask, what kind of moral- 
ity — pagan, infidel or Christian? Morals of wise men*, 
of heathen and deists? The laws of Sparta required 
theft, and the murder of unhealthy children. Athens 
enacted that maimed children should be killed. Plato, 
in the constitution of his republic, taught the com- 
munity of women and property. Plato taught he 
might lie who knew how to do it. Austippus taught 
that stealing and adultery were no crimes. Cicero 
and Seneca that suicide was the mark of a hero. Lord 
Herbert, an English deist, taught that indulgence of 
lust was no more sin than indulgence of thirst, and 
adultery no crime! Another taught that a man has 
a right to all things and may get them if he can. 
Hume taught that adultery must be practiced to obtain 



THE GOLDEN POT. 133 

all the advantages of life, and would soon come to 
be thought no crime! Bolingbroke taught that man 
was only an animal, and his chief end to gratify his 
appetites and inclinations. 

If you turn out this book, I ask who can furnish a 
perfect code of morals? If any mortal could, can 
they also give it authority over the consciences of men? 
Who would feel bound by a sixth, seventh, ninth or 
tenth commandment issued by Thomas Jefferson, 
George Washington or the bishop of Oxford? Can 
deism, rationalism, or the Pope give you such a code? 
It is a maxim among the Prussians that whatever you 
would have appear in the nation's life, you must put 
into the public school. Then if you would have 
Christian morality essential to the nation's life, you 
must not turn the only law of Christian morality out 
of the public education. The famous ordinance of 
1787 declares that "religion, morality and knowledge 
being necessary to a good government and the happi- 
ness of mankind, schools and means of education shall 
be forever encouraged." Says Chief Justice Shaw, 
■"The public school system was intended to supply a 
system of moral training." Says another writer on 
constitutional interpretation, "Security and morality 
are the supreme laws of the land." All past history 
establishes the fact that no people, however cultivated 
and intelligent, who have lacked that moral element 
which can best be inculcated through a judicious and 
proper infusion of moral principles in the daily life 
of the public schools, have been able long to sustain a 
system of self-government. To suppose that you can 
make good, safe, useful citizens for such a government 
without educating the moral nature is preposterous. 
Such an education is simply sharpening a knife to cut 
the nation's throat. 



134 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



Another fact must be noticed here, that is, that 
morality can flow only from religious truth. Religious 
truth is the tree, morality is the fruit. A nation's 
morality is the fruit of a nation's religion. Pagan 
morality is the result of pagan religion; Mohammedan 
from the Mohammedan; Mormon from the Mormon; 
Christian from the Christian religion. Then if you 
would have Christian morality enter into the national 
life, you must keep the great distinctive, essential 
truths in the national schools. 

We believe the Prussian maxim true, "What you 
would have appear in a nation's life must appear in 
her schools." What is taught here flows into every 
vein and artery, and makes the throbbing of the great 
national heart. Expel the Bible from your schools, 
what text-book will you use to teach your coming 
citizens and senators honesty between man and 
man, to reject bribes, to fear and respect an oath? 
What book will you use to teach them that rebellion 
against civil government is a crime, that perjury and 
lying are crimes? What text-book can you use to 
fit any individual to be either a citizen or ruler in such 
a republic as this? If you rob the nation of truth-fed, 
intellectual and moral life, then death is as sure to 
follow as it is when you open the jugular vein of a 
man! Can a tree possibly be healthy, beautiful and 
fruitful if the tap-root and all its fibres be severed? 
Our nation boasts of its enlightened civilization, its 
great civil institutions, its magnificent charities, ad- 
vancement in scientific and practical knowledge, its 
rapid development and unparalleled growth in wealth, 
power and national prestige; true, but these are only 
the trunk and branches, but the intellectual, moral 
life, fed upon Divine truth, is the tap-root that nour- 
ishes this grand growth and fruitfulness. Expel the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 135 

Bible from your national system of education, and 
you either dry up the life-root or poison it, and your 
great tree either withers in trunk and branch and be- 
comes barren, or bears the bitter fruit of tyranny and 
festering political social corruption. 

Again, you expel from your schools the only book 
that can teach your children the true source and nature 
of civil government, gives binding authority to national 
statutes, and makes their execution possible. Take 
away the revealed law of God and you leave no vestige 
of authority for any human law. The Bible lays the 
only solid foundation stone upon which human gov- 
ernments can rest and execute their laws ; for it makes 
the most high God the source of all authority, civil 
government His ordinance, and civil rulers His min- 
isters, and enforces obedience to all human laws that 
do not contravene the Divine law, by the fear of His 
great name and Almighty arm. "There is no power 
but of God. The powers that be are ordained of 
God." Without this truth made known and accepted 
by the mass in some name, no mortal can establish and 
exercise a lawful authority over men. You must in 
some way make human enactments binding upon the 
conscience and a sin to break them; and to do this, 
you must put a power behind them greater than any 
mere human dictum or earthly royalty. The people 
must believe in an absolute, Supreme Power, whether 
it be a false God or the true one; therefore, amid the 
horrors of the French revolution, Robespierre declared 
if France has no God we must invent one! A nation 
must have a God and Legislator believed to be infalli- 
ble, or you cannot administer government over men. 

But I hear some one say, it has been done in this 
land, that this nation has acknowledged no God, or 



136 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Divine Legislator, yet the government has been ad- 
ministered successfully for more than one hundred 
years! But this is a great mistake. Although this 
truth and acknowledgement is not in the written con- 
stitution of the country, yet it is in the providential 
constitution, and the people have submitted to the 
government becausethey believed it to be an ordinance 
of God, and its laws enacted, as they believed, in 
accordance with the Divine law, and its executors they 
believed to be the ministers of God. 

But now there is a very large class of people, and I 
fear growing rapidly, who believe that civil govern- 
ment is simply a social compact — merely an ordinance 
of men, not an ordinance of God at all, and that law is 
just simply an expression of the public will. When 
men come to believe that you must administer these 
without the restraint, without the commanding power 
of any higher than human authority, and without 
any higher than human legislation, there remains no 
foundation for justice and right. This is simply an 
impossibility; no government was ever administered 
upon that principle; all governments have founded 
their laws, and executed the powers of government, 
by founding them upon the religious sentiments of 
their subjects. Greece, Rome, India, Persia and 
China founded their power upon the convictions of 
the people in the existence of a higher ruler and a 
higher power — in other words, they received powers 
to execute laws and the sanction of these laws from the 
belief of the people in a higher power. So in this 
nation the people must believe in some power higher 
than an earthly throne; some legislation higher and 
wiser than human legislation — either the true and 
living God, or some false god. There must be this 



THE GOLDEN POT. 137 

foundation upon which to base the authority of the 
nation and found its laws ; and whenever you can bring 
the people to a universal, or even an approximate 
universal acceptance of this idea that law and justice 
is nothing more than the judgment of human legisla- 
tion, and that government is simply the expression of 
the popular will, then let me tell you that I believe 
that all your enactments which you now seem to think 
an iron fence around the property and liberty of your 
people will be found to be simply a rope of tow, and 
instead of government and liberty you will have 
anarchy and licentiousness, because right and wrong 
in this country will then simply be the judgment of the 
majority, and the judgment of the majority has no 
right to bind the consciences of the minority. A law 
which issues from no higher source than from human 
legislation can bind no one's conscience. You may 
divorce the Church and State forever, but you cannot, 
except in folly, divorce State and religion. There 
are many 'great intellectual and moral principles with- 
out which the government cannot exist, and one of 
these is this: that we must acknowledge Jehovah as 
the supreme source of authority, and His revealed 
will as the foundation of all law and justice. Without 
that fundamental principle your government cannot 
exist. A great many bricks may be taken out of your 
wall and not weaken it perceptibly. But you cannot 
with impunity attempt to remove the foundation stones. 
You may cut off many little branches from the tree 
and it still live. But attempt to sever the tap-root 
and it dies. So, I tell you, take up this foundation 
stone, suffer this to be done until our people lose 
respect for the Supreme Ruler and His revealed will, 
and your republican government and your unparal- 



138 THE GOLDEN POT. 

leled freedom will be an impossibility. You might as 
well attempt to build a beautiful temple without 
foundation stones; you might as well expect a tree 
to grow beautiful without a tap-root, as to pluck up 
those principles and expect a strong and enduring 
republican government to exist. You must bring this, 
truth to the heart and conscience of the nation. 

But expel the Bible from your common schools, and 
you shut up the only channel that can carry this life- 
giving truth to the national conscience and heart. But 
I am here met by what is supposed to be the strong 
fundamental argument of Dr. Spear, and others, that 
our nation has no religion, therefore cannot teach 
religious truths in her schools, that the State must 
treat all religious opinions alike. I answer, the latter 
statement is an absurdity and an impossibility. The 
first is untrue, the second is a ruinous impossibility. 
All men — the Mormon, the Jew, the infidel, the China- 
man — all should have equal rights before the law of 
the land as men. All should have the same protection 
in person, property, life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. All should be in that respect equal before 
the law of the land; but that is quite different from 
treating with the same favor and encouragement all 
opinions. I say that the government cannot give the 
same favor to the Josh-house that they give to the 
religion of Jesus Christ; to the school that teaches 
the absolute infallibility of the Pope they cannot give 
the same encouragement they do to the school that 
teaches that God's will is the supreme law of the land. 
They cannot give to the school that teaches the erro- 
neous doctrines of atheism the same equality they do 
to the school that recognizes the Bible and God's laws. 
They cannot give to the polygamist the same encour- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



139 



agement that they do to the monogamist and his 
family. Every man sees at once the government 
cannot do this. Suppose a man comes to this 
government and says: I demand the same favor 
and encouragement to teach and disseminate atheism 
as you are giving to teach the Bible and acknowledge- 
ment of God. The people would say: "No, sir, we 
cannot give it. This nation's right to live is higher 
than your right to disseminate any particular dogmas. 
And if this nation must live it cannot please everybody. 
This nation is dearer by far than any person's peculiar 
ideas. Then we say to certain men, your doctrines 
imperil the safety, peace and prosperity of the nation. 
Therefore we cannot favor nor encourage them as we 
do others." 

That the State has no religion and nothing to do 
with religion is a great mistake, and a most grievous- 
fallacy. The State has to do with religion and our 
nation has a religion. The government has no re- 
ligious establishment to which she requires citizens to 
conform and never should have. This is no more 
necessary to the nation having a religion than it is for 
an individual in having a religion to compel every 
person to conform to him. Because of the defect in 
our organic law it does not set forth the fact, yet the 
State has a religion. Story, on the Constitution, says, 
"It is impossible for those who believe in the truth 
of Christianity as a Divine revelation to doubt that it 
is the special duty of government to foster it among 
all the citizens and subjects." Further, he says, at the 
time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States, "The attempt to level all religions and make 
it a matter of State policy to hold all in utter indif- 
ference would have created universal disapprobation, 



140 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



if not universal indignation." Judge Duncan, of the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, says: "It is impos- 
sible to administer the laws without taking the religion 
of the Scriptures as their basis. For Christianity is 
part of the common law." Blackstone says, "We 
have received the Christian religion as part of the 
common law." The courts of New York have held 
Christianity as part of the common law; so has the 
State of Pennsylvania. Webster, in his great argu- 
ment in the Girard will case, says, "Christianity is the 
law of the land." Statutes against blasphemy, and 
the violation of the Sabbath, prove this; and, says 
Webster, "They proceed on the principle — the great, 
broad principle — that the preservation of Christianity 
is one of the great and leading ends of government." 
Religious services in Congress, the Legislatures, and 
in the army and navy, days of public fasting and 
thanksgiving, prove this. The history of the country 
clearly shows that our fathers laid the national founda- 
tion on the great truths of Christianity; and these 
essential principles underlie all the institutions of the 
land, and flow through all the arteries of the national 
body. Yet we are told that the State has no religion, 
and nothing to do with religious truth or ideas! 
Contrary to this, Webster says : "A republican govern- 
ment must have some religion; for its end is the con- 
servation of freedom to the people, which cannot be 
secured without the aid of the great truths of Chris- 
tianity. It must use religion, and appeal to conscience 
and future retribution, or it cannot attain its end in the 
conservation of the freedom of the people. It is not 
to do it for religion's sake simply, but it may and must 
employ religion for freedom's sake." Such is the 
judgment of one of the greatest minds and highest 



THE GOLDEN POT. 141 

authorities in political ethics our land ever possessed. 
And I fearlessly assert that, from the time of Adam to 
the present hour, there never was a nation that did not 
get its power to rule through the religious sentiments 
of its subjects, and did not get sanction and force for 
its laws from the same source. 

Refuse to recognize any higher power than majori- 
ties, presidents and earthly kings, and any higher law- 
giver than human legislators, and republican govern- 
ment is an impossibility. Let us for a moment yield 
the doctrine that the State has no religion, and for this 
reason must exclude religious truth from everything 
supported at public cost, where it has control. Then 
there are your State prisons, where Christianity has 
been for years laboring for reform, and to offer Divine 
mercy to the convict. And the testimony of General 
Amos Pilsbury, Superintendent of Albany Penitentiary, 
is that nothing has been so beneficial in the prison, 
not only for reformation, but discipline, as the Bible. 
The testimony of the Superintendent at Richmond, 
Va., and of these officers almost everywhere in the 
land, is similar to this. But in this principle you must 
turn the Bible out of the convicts' cells, from the 
chaplain's desk, remove the chaplain himself, never 
suffer the criminals to hear that they have sinned 
against God, that there is a Saviour for the guilty, 
never to hear prayer to a throne of grace! Make 
their prisons like those of Spain and Italy, where the 
Bible never enters ! If the State can have nothing to 
do with religion, you must do this. Then there are 
our Schools of Reform, and Houses of Refuge and 
Almshouses, where are children and adults with no 
possible hope of any religious instruction but what 
they get there. Now, songs of praise, the reading of 



j 4 2 THE GOLDEN POT. 

God's Word, prayers of faith and the preaching of 
Jesus Christ is the inheritance of these poor ones. 
But on this principle you must cut off all these, and 
teach them only mathematical calculation, how to wear 
clothes, make porridge and dig potatoes. There are 
our asylums for the deaf and dumb, established in 
almost every State at the public expense; how much 
humanity, not to say Christianity, has the soul that 
would shut out the knowledge of God, of Christ, hope 
and heaven from these, whose voiceless tongues cannot 
plead their own cause? Yet on this principle it may 
be done. Then there are schools for the blind, sup- 
ported by the State. Here are hundreds who, from 
raised letter Bibles are, through their fingers, taking 
into their benighted souls "the light of the knowledge 
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Will 
you put out this stream of light and joy from the 
Redeemer's mercy seat, and make their darkness most 
appalling gloom? Yes, because the State has no 
religion and cannot support religion. Abolish forever 
your days of national fasting and thanksgiving, expel 
the Bible and prayers from your Congress, turn the 
Bible out of your courts, your prisons, schools of 
charity and reform, out of your asylums for the deaf, 
dumb and blind, then expel it from sixty-five thousand 
public schools, then over the doors of all these institu- 
tions in every village, town and city from Maine to 
California, from Alaska to the Gulf, you may write, 
"A State without religion." But the writing will 
not long stand; for you will find you have pushed the 
foundation stones from under the superstructure of 
republican freedom and it will fall to rise no more. 

We plead against national suicide! Coming events 
cast their shadows before. Infidels and other opposers 



THE GOLDEN POT. 143 

of our religion and liberty saw this shadow of the 
■coming great national reform years ago, and they saw 
that the Bible in our education was an efficient means 
to bring it on and give it success; therefore the Bible 
reading in the schools was only the ostensible object 
of their blows; this thrust was to cut deeper, to cut up 
by the roots the essential life-giving principle of re- 
publicanism; that is, that civil government is an 
ordinance of God and the Divine law the supreme 
and infallible rule of right. Those two stand or fall 
together. Retain the Bible in education and you may 
bring the nation as such to acknowledge the great 
principle of its life and authority. Expel the Bible and 
this hope dies. Suffer the organic law of the land to 
remain much longer as it is, and you cannot retain the 
Bible in the common schools. You do battle at a 
.great disadvantage. Behind our otherwise excellent 
constitution the enemy stand protected in the fight. 
No people can afford to leave a great national life- 
principle to the uncertainties of political parties or 
popular elections, to the mere spirit of a legal instru- 
ment or the changeableness of statute enactments; it 
must be established by a great test of law written 
in the constitution. Our constitution had the princi- 
ples of human freedom in its first writing, but suppose 
that the freedom of man, the equality of all men 
"before the law, had not been embodied in the organic 
law, that it had been left to be fought over by political 
parties and exposed to the uncertainties of popular 
elections, how long could we have hoped to retain it? 
Like wise men, when we attained the crystallized 
conviction that all men are free and have equal rights 
tefore the law, we embodied that conviction in the 
organic law of the land and made it safe thereby. 



144 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



So this truth, God the source of all power, and the 
Divine law the supreme and infallible rule of right, 
is a life-truth of national existence and authority, and 
should be explicitly and unmistakably embodied in the 
organic law of the land. We demand this, not only 
that we may retain the Bible in our common schools, 
but behind such a glorious constitution as a bulwark 
we may do battle against the enemies of our beloved 
country, the enemies of humanity, of freedom, and 
human happiness. Our government now lies upon 
the brink of a giddy precipice over a hideous gulf. 
Expel the Bible from your educational system, let 
Christian morality perish, and the great national life- 
principle taught in Divine truth die out of the hearts 
of the people, and our great nation will assuredly 
tumble into the horrid, yawning gulf of misrule, anarchy 
and lifeless, rotting ruin. 



VIII. 

X-Rays of the Bible — Rays Which You Cannot 
Escape. 

* i Tke Word of God is quick and powerful, dividing asu?ider soul and 

spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" 

Hebrews iv: 12. 

When Paul says the Word of God is "quick," he 
means it is vital, and has vitalizing power, or the 
power to communicate life. Professor Roentgen 
(Renken), of the Royal University of Wurtsburg, 
working in his laboratory, discovered something he 
had never detected before; something penetrating, 
powerful, piercing through what was supposed to be 
impenetrable, and revealing, bringing to light and 
sight what before was supposed to be invisible! 
Penetrating flesh, bone, wood and metal! This 
.something he called rays. If he gave them the correct 
name, then they must have come from some radiant 
source that had the power to produce and send them 
out! And they have been pouring out, unwasting, 
from that original creative source ever since the first 
radiant beam broke from this fountain, to penetrate 
the created, material world! They have been opera- 
tive, with all this mysterious might, through the his- 
torical and pre-historical ages of time! And in this 
•close of the nineteenth century, Professor Renken 
discovered this fact; he made nothing new nor put 
in action anything before inactive, he only uncovered 
a fact, something active, and made possible its direc- 
tion, application and utility. For this he has been 



146 THE GOLDEN POT. 

made famous, honored and ennobled. This is cer- 
tainly not improper, but if he has discovered a fact, 
a beneficent power, let us, at least, acknowledge and 
honor God, the Originator, as much as the discoverer! 
Now, let us admit the utmost that is claimed for this 
mysterious force, yet is there not, proceeding from 
Divine Truth, a force analagous to, yet far superior 
to this? 

The Bible itself may represent only the vacuum 
tube, Crooke's or Wittorf's, but the mysterious, re- 
vealing force that streams from it are rays of Divine 
radiancy and power that has only been discovered by 
men; they had nothing to do with bringing its force 
into being or activity. They only discovered a fact, 
that from and through this Book there comes a pene- 
trating, revealing power that issues from no other, nor 
all books united on earth; that through the truth 
it contains comes to every mind and soul that is 
exposed to it an influence and energy more incom- 
prehensible, mighty and resistless than comes from 
any other known source among men! And this 
vitality and energy was not brought into being or 
activity by discovery, but had an original eternal 
existence and activity flowing out through all un- 
measured ages from the shining fountain of Divine 
light and life. But it did not penetrate and illumine 
human souls until it was gathered and concentrated 
in the truth of this Book, and souls were exposed to 
it, as objects are to the Renken rays from a vacuum 
tube. We have discovered that the mysterious, 
matchless power comes from the eternal spirit of our 
redeeming Lord, and has poured forth from Him 
through all past eternities, and reaches and operates 
on human souls through His revealed Word! 



THE GOLDEN POT. 147 

Second. Professor Renken calls his discovery 
X-Rays. I suppose because X is the Unknown, in 
an algebraic problem, and its value cannot be known 
until the problem is wrought out and answered. 
These, Renken says, cannot be known by any of the 
bodily senses, eye, ear, or touch, invisible, inaudible, 
intangible, their presence and power can be known 
only by results. So the X-rays of this Book, you 
cannot know their presence and power by merely 
looking on the book, or touching the book, or hearing 
its contents. Many have denied its inner power, be- 
cause by their senses and reason, by their science and 
philosophy, they could not discover and prove it, but 
like these rays, it can be known only by its effects. 
When this Divine power has passed through this; 
truth into the soul, and produced there the new light 
and life and shown the image, divine and human, never 
seen before, there remains no more doubt of this 
wondrous and joyous force, and its results! But the 
full effect of this unknown, immeasurable power 
cannot be seen until the problem is rightly wrought 
out and answered; then will appear a work of perfec- 
tion, grandeur, wonder and glory, such as earth, nor 
heaven, has ever seen before! "We shall be like 
Him!" I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy 
likeness. 

Some claim that the Renken rays are a material 
substance streaming through intervening material 
substances and revealing material substances in or 
under them. I do not know that this is Herr Ren- 
ken's opinion. It may be true, as they only come 
from matter, operate on matter and reveal matter, but 
we know the X-rays of the Bible are not material. 
They pour forth from the eternal Spirit of life, light 



148 THE GOLDEN POT. 

and power; they penetrate the soul, which is not 
matter, and reveal that in the soul which is not 
material. These rays of this Book are spirit and 
operate upon spirit and reveal spiritual things. It 
is claimed for the Renken rays that they will penetrate 
the hardest substances, wood, metal, flesh and even 
bone, and reveal substances that are placed under 
or within flesh and bone; that they can pass through 
the skull and show the brain within. They may prove 
some persons to have brains that were never blamed 
for it before. It is expected their use will bring great 
relief to human misery and peril, in the hands of the 
prudent and skillful physician and surgeon. And we 
sincerely hope it will effect more than all that has ever 
been claimed for this new and remarkable discovery. 

Yet we claim for the X-rays of the Bible superior 
power and benefit in penetrating the supposed im- 
penetrable and bringing relief to human misery and 
peril. Take the soul, cold and hard as iron, or the 
hearts which the prophets describe as stone and 
adamant, set them before this Bible tube, let the 
Divine rays flow on them, and they will pass through 
and through them, unobstructed and unwasted. It 
has been tried with the petrified hearts of drunkards, 
the iron-hearted tyrant, the most fiendishly cruel and 
stony-hearted heathen, and it not only penetrated 
them, but melted them, as fire does the iron, and most 
wonderful of all, changed them into hearts of flesh! 
"I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh 
and give you a heart of flesh." Such persons have 
become gentle, just, kind and tender. This brought 
more happiness to humanity, relieved more misery and 
peril than all substances physician or surgeon can ever 
discover and remove from human bodies. What is 



THE GOLDEN POT. 149 

the suffering and peril of human bodies, compared 
to that of the immortal soul? Or the relief and ease 
of the body compared to the relief, rest and happiness 
of the soul? The power and capacity of the soul for 
happiness or misery compared to the body, is like 
measuring the orbit of the sun to the periphery of the 
Corliss wheel, or the measureless eternity to a date 
in time! The Renken rays may penetrate the cranium 
and look on the brain, and through the body may 
show the fleshly heart, but it is not claimed that it can 
read the thoughts of that brain or the emotions and 
intents of the heart. It stops at what is matter and 
flesh, and can reach nothing deeper. But the rays 
that pass through the Bible can, as my text says, 
"pierce even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." 
From these the man can see the difference, the 
dividing line betwen mere intellectual power and 
action, and spiritual, the difference between mere 
mental culture, the operation and results of human 
wisdom and training, and the culture, wisdom and 
training of the Divine Spirit, the power, influence 
and results of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The 
difference between genius and grace; the source of 
the life, the power of the life, the aim and end of the 
life of the one so different from the other. The en- 
during beauty and glory of the one so far above the 
other! No other rays have the power of rightly 
dividing soul and spirit, and revealing the life that rises 
so joyously and immortally above the animal, physical 
and intellectual life! The rays that come through 
this Divine Book can reveal "the thoughts and intents 
of the heart." If any person would know what the 
thought of his heart is towards God and man, right 
and wrong, sin and holiness, let him put himself under 



i5o 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



the direct rays of Divine truth, and he can soon discern 
clearly their character. These rays will pierce 
through all sophistry, hypocrisy, apologies and eva- 
sions, and he can read easily the sincerity or insincerity, 
the right or wrong of his thoughts. Saul flattered 
himself he was righteous, until before the gates of 
Damascus he stood beneath these rays; then he ex- 
claimed, "I am carnal, sold under sin; O wretched 
man that I am!" Job had thoughts that were pleasing 
as to his perfection, and God approved his sincerity 
and uprightness, but when the searchlight of these 
rays fell into his soul, he exclaimed: "If I wash my 
hands in snow water, and make them never so clean, 
yet Thou wilt plunge me in the ditch, and mine own 
clothes would abhor me." David had perhaps heard 
it said he was a man after God's own heart, but under 
the focus of these rays he exclaimed : "I was conceived 
in sin and brought forth in iniquity; create a clean 
heart, renew a right spirit within me!" In the same 
position, Isaiah exclaimed: "Woe is me, I am un- 
clean!" There are no such rays as these, that search 
into every nook and corner of the soul, make all 
darkness light, and all hidden things visible. No 
mind-reader like this ; here no mistakes are made, but 
the most secret thoughts of the heart are revealed. 
If you would test the thoughts of your fellow-men, get 
yourself and them into the focus of these Divine rays, 
and they will shine through and through the soul, 
and you can read the character, in heart thoughts, 
of God and men, law and justice, purity and impurity, 
and you can say this is the truth of this person, a 
correct spiritual photograph that cannot be mistaken. 
Let the business man, employer and employee, poli- 
tician, statesman and ruler, rich and poor, put them- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 151 

selves in these Divine rays, and they may soon know 
what are the intents, the purposes of their hearts, 
whether to do right or wrong, to do justice or 
injustice, purposes of mercy or wrath, humanity or 
inhumanity, robbery or righteousness! And no 
screen they may put between can resist their pene- 
trating power. They can shine through a mountain 
pile of the merchant's goods, through all the evasions, 
lies, subterfuges and iron-clad policy of partisan or 
statesman, through all the gold-bags, bonds and 
mortgages of magnates and millionaires, and all the 
obscurity and cunning of servant or employee! When 
we wish to test the hearts of our fellow-men, we try 
to put them under the searchlight of these Divine rays 
and judge their purposes by this revelation, and when 
these show the wrong that is in their purposes, we 
decide this must be removed before they can be 
healthy and trusted. "All things are naked and 
opened" before the brightness of this radiance. 

There is one other analogy I wish to notice. It 
is said the Renken rays show any foreign and hurtful 
substance inside hand, foot, head or body, and guide 
the hand of physician or surgeon to remove it. So 
these Bible rays show the foreign and hurtful in the 
heart and soul, sinful thoughts and feeling, evil intents 
and purposes, and these must be removed for the 
soul's health and life; and these Bible rays guide the 
skillful, gracious hand of the Divine Physician and 
Surgeon to remove these and bring rest, health, life 
and happiness to the soul that shall never fail itl 
Let us rightly recognize honor, and, if you please, 
ennoble the scientific discoverer, but let us not forget 
or refuse to honor God, the author of beneficent facts 
discovered, more than the discoverer. And let us 



152 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



reprobate the conceited, foolish fallacy that any dis- 
covery can leave our Bible an antiquated record of 
ancient ignorance and limitations. Some seem to 
think we are getting far ahead of all Bible knowledge 
and wisdom, that this book is becoming only a curious 
old tome! What are the facts? The pick and the 
spade have dug up what have been called wonderful 
discoveries of ancient knowledge and art, yet, hun- 
dreds of years since, the Bible told us they were there 1 
We pierced the fountains of oil through the rock, only 
to find this book told us it was there! We mine the 
iron and precious ores of earth, yet this book tells 
us God put these treasures there! We may be assured 
human science and discovery will never overtake and 
pass the book, its rays will penetrate and shine along 
every pathway of discovery and progress through 
time. I believe it is admitted the Renken rays cannot 
penetrate the clay of earth and uncover what is buried 
there. But the rays of this Book can penetrate the 
deepest graves, oceans and mausoleums of earth, and 
not only show the dead hidden there, but its vital 
quickening power can awaken them to a resurrection, 
a life and glory everlasting. 

Lastly, you may avoid the focus and work of the 
Renken rays, but the rays of the Bible in this land 
you cannot escape ; they fill the whole atmosphere and 
horizon where this book is open, as does the light of 
the sun, and your character is being correctly photo- 
graphed to give judgment for or against you. If in 
faith you stand before this Divine tube, and let its rays 
fall on your soul, you can see God, and life, and glory! 
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God " 



IX. 

The Strength and Responsibilities of Young 
Men. 

"I have written unto you young men because ye are strong, and the 

word of God abideth in you, and ye have oz'ercome the 

wicked one," I John ii: 14. 

Beauty is a woman's right inheritance — beauty o£ 
figure, features, expression, movements, the beauty 
that charms the eye. But a beautiful man! The 
expression itself conveys the idea of a weak, effeminate 
dudishness that unfits the man for his position and 
work. But, says Solomon, "The glory of young men 
is their strength." In every work, battle or triumph 
of life, whether material, mental or moral, strength is 
essential. In the field, shop or mart, in the forest 
or on the sea, in the city and in the country, brain 
and heart and brawn are all needed. When our 
nation's life was in peril, and defenders were the need, 
to whom did she write or call? Not to children, 
spinning their tops and shooting their marbles in 
the street, not to the old and decrepit in woolen hose 
and slipper-shod feet, but to young men who were 
strong — she called for those between eighteen and 
forty-five, men in their prime, stalwart men, at least 
those with healthful frames, unimpaired minds and 
hopeful hearts — earnest, patriotic men, able to do, to 
dare, to endure, to sacrifice, suffer and die. To these 
the nation committed the honor of defending her life 
and unity. These had the deepest and most extensive 
interest in the issue. Old men were near their time 



J 54 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



of moving to another country, but these, if spared, 
had the hopes and happiness of thirty or forty years 
in the conflict; and in their children the interest and 
hopes of a century. These were also fitted for the 
battle-day. Childhood tenderness was past and the 
decrepitude of age not reached; therefore they could 
"endure hardness as good soldiers," and the responsi- 
bilities of the hour, the heat and burden of the day, 
the perils of the conflict, were laid on them, and justly 
they gloried in their strength. 

So the Lord has a kingdom on earth, its life and 
unity to be defended, maintained and extended; He 
has an army to be recruited, a battle-work to be done, 
which demands hardness, endurance, sacrifice and 
suffering, a conflict to be waged, a victory to be won, 
and a peerless glory to be gained. To do and to 
attain all this He says, in the text, "I write unto you 
young men, because ye are strong." Strong men are 
the need of our land to-day, in her material operations 
and political life, in her social, moral and religious 
life — strong in the three-fold cord of their natures, 
in every fibre of their being, physical, mental and 
moral. 

First. The elements of strength. 

Second. The responsibilities it imposes. 

The first is physical or bodily vigor and health. 
The period of life called youth and early manhood 
has natural elements of strength, in health of body, 
vigor of mind and hopefulness of heart. These com- 
bined make that impulsive force, that strength to 
endure and sustain earnest and continued activity, 
which marks the prime of manhood. Look at the 
healthy physical man, just at that period when the 
roundness and softness of infancv and childhood have 



THE GOLDEN POT. 155 

left his limbs and the stiffness and brittleness of age 
are not yet reached; every part is firm and lithe and 
hardened, the sinews strong as whip-cords, the 
muscles like many strands of steel thread, holding 
every joint in its place. Sickness has not yet enfee- 
bled, passion has not emasculated, nor sloth and lust 
enervated or poisoned either the fluids or solids of 
his body; but the whole physical man is compactly 
built together by that which every joint supplieth, a 
dwelling and workshop for the immortal soul, a temple 
for the spirit of the Holy One, "fearfully and won- 
derfully made," in glory or beauty surpassing any 
palace ever built by human hands! Such a physique 
is a luxury and a precious gift of God, an instrument 
of exquisite enjoyment and happiness. 

Without a goodly measure of this health and vigor 
no one can be a strong man. Whatever may be his 
mental and heart power, his strength is shorn. Take 
the mind of a Humboldt, a Bacon or Newton, and 
the soul of a Paul, put them into a frame of marrow- 
less bones, poisoned fluids, cotton sinews and woolen 
muscles — if their spirits did not tear down the 
wretched fabric they would become maniacs or imbe- 
ciles in such a tenement. 

It is true, young men, many a noble soul has lived 
and labored not only in a clay tabernacle, but one of 
pale and brittle clay — occupied a body that looked 
much like a frame dwelling which had been in the 
hands of an earthquake, that had drawn every tenon 
and brace from its mortice, but they were so much the 
weaker for this. Therefore, if you can have the 
strength of an athlete, the thews and sinews of the 
Greek agonistes, accept it as a Divine gift for enjoy- 
ment and employment. I beseech you, don't put a 



156 THE GOLDEN POT. 

poison into the fluids, or a cancer into the bones of 
your physical man! It is a violation of the sixth 
commandment, it is the crime of suicide. With too 
much truthfulness, it has been said of Lord Byron,. 
"He passed by quick leaps from boyhood to the vices 
of age; disgust with existence, and contempt for 
mankind was all the wisdom he gleaned from his 
excesses, and died old and worn out at thirty-six." 

Faith and love are no less beautiful for being 
embodied in a healthy, muscular frame. 

2d. Another element of strength in young men is 
intellectual animation and vigor. At such a period of 
life the mental powers can grasp with firmness and 
hold with tenacity what is given them, as they cannot 
at any other time of life. They may not have the 
full development and accuracy in judgment of riper 
years, because they have not the treasures of knowl- 
edge. But I do not now speak of that knowledge 
"which is power," but of the ability to acquire knowl- 
edge; this is greatest in youth. The memory has 
then the least useless lumber and retains most faith- 
fully what is committed to it. Judgment and reason 
are not then overburdened and bewildered, but pene- 
trating and quick. Conscience then is not dull or 
hardened, but tender and true. 

Then is the time to strike boldly out into the fields 
of knowledge to gather treasures for future wealth 
and use. Like hundred-handed Briareus, the intellect 
reaches out in every direction for treasures, goes into 
the depths of the earth and the depths of the sea, 
traverses continents, and, reaching upward, plucks 
treasures from amid the stars. It has then courage 
to meet in battle Janus-faced error, a deceitful and 
treacherous foe. In this conflict the solid shot is 



THE GOLDEN POT. 157 

compacted logic, and the glittering sword and bayonet 
is bright truth and polished thought. These are the 
resistless weapons and impenetrable armor with which 
God clothes His soldiers that do exploits. Young 
men, whatever intellectual gifts and treasures of 
knowledge God has bestowed upon you, consecrate 
and use them now — this is the day of their strength. 

3d. Another element of youthful strength is cheerful 
hopefulness of heart, buoyancy of spirit. Gloom, and 
■despondency, and doubt, and dread, weaken. Fog is 
not strong. A pithless and sapless stem is weak. 
Take the sapling whose branches are leafless, whose 
.sap is gone down; it is not dead, it is only in its winter 
months: bend it to the ground; you may do it, but it 
will hardly straighten again; if it does, it will rise very 
slowly and uncertainly. But take the sapling whose 
leaf is green, and every fibre bathed in vital fluid; bend 
it to the earth, but no sooner is your hand removed 
than with a bound it is straight again. 

When disease lays its hand upon the strong man, 
scarcely is it removed when he almost bounds back 
to health and strength again, and in a few weeks you 
would not know he had been ill. This is not simply 
from the vigor of bone and muscle, but from a hope- 
fulness and vivacity of life, a buoyancy of spirit, that 
rises above depression. The crushing tyrant must 
strike again and again before it is broken; misfortune 
after misfortune may come, billow may succeed billow, 
until many waters have gone over him, before his soul 
will tolerate the thought of going under. This hope- 
fulness is a brightness, a beauty and a glory in life, 
the sunshine and song, and no mean element of 
strength. It makes a man capable of doing and dar- 
ing, of viewing difficulties without depression, and 



158 THE GOLDEN POT. 

undertaking enterprises of "great pith and moment.'* 
Cherish and sustain by every rational and needful 
means this genial, sunny hopefulness of heart. When 
you lose this, be assured decline has begun, whatever 
your age may be; the frost has touched your summer, 
the season of the sere and yellow leaf has come; you 
may have a few Indian summer days, but winter has 
set in, your strength is frost-bitten. Therefore, I say 
again, preserve your cheerfulness and buoyancy of 
spirit. To do this, guard the health and strength of 
body and mind, but, above all, peace and purity of 
conscience. Nothing is such a cloud upon the sun- 
shine of the soul as a reproving conscience, the shadow 
of guilt that no day can dispel. 

This brings us to notice another element of strength 
which is mentioned in the text: the indwelling of 
Divine truth, "the Word of God abideth in you." To 
all natural elements of strength this is most essential, 
"divine truth abiding in the soul." "The Word of 
God abideth in you." Many young men have all the 
natural constituents of strength, yet lack this, the 
most potent element, the most unfailing source of 
power. They may have the gigantic muscular man, 
and attainments and gifts of mind of the highest order, 
yet they are but shorn Samsons, who slumber in 
the lustful lap of earth, in imminent peril, who can be 
safely bound with the heathen withes, and new ropes 
of sin. 

This Word is not only nourishment, but medicine, 
to even the intellectual powers. By it the memory 
is purged and invigorated, the judgment and reason 
cleared and guided, conscience softened and purified, 
the affections elevated and refined and the will set 
free from the tyranny of desire. Says our Saviour, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 159 

"The words I speak unto you are spirit and life," and 
they bring spirit and life to every power of the soul 
where they abide. From this Word alone you learn 
to discern between right and wrong, good and evil, 
holiness and unholiness. By this Word alone you 
learn to know the living and the true God, and how 
He will be worshipped and served. By this only can 
you learn the name, nature, doings and glory of the 
Redeemer of guilty men; by this Word alone the 
offer of Divine mercy and love come to your hearts; 
by this alone Christ Himself comes into your souls 
by faith, as the hope of eternal life and glory. By 
this Word alone is love to God born in your soul; 
through the instrumentality of this Word only can 
you be renewed in the Divine image; only through 
faith in this Word can you overcome the world. By 
this Jesus Christ, while in our nature on earth, tri- 
umphed over His adversary. To the great tempter, in 
the wilderness, on the mountain, and the pinnacle 
of the temple, He answered, "It is written, Thou shalt 
live by the Word of God, thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord, and thou shalt worship the Lord and Him only 
shalt thou serve." This was the victorious strength 
of the man Christ Jesus. 

Take any young man, let the light of Divine truth 
shine in his intellect, let its holy principles abide in 
his heart, and he may walk amid all the meanness, 
selfishness, avarice and lewdness of any sin-stained 
city, as untainted by it as the angels by the filthiness 
of Sodom; he can say with an imperial mandate to all 
the legions of unclean devils around him, "Get thee 
behind me, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the 
Lord and Him only shalt thou serve." 

He is a king among men, in the truest and highest 



j6o the golden pot. 

.sense, wearing a crown made of more precious stuff 
than the glittering coronet of mortal made monarchs. 
He is a king and priest unto God, wearing a crown 
of righteousness and a diadem of glory. He not only 
holds a rule over self, but a sceptre over the leagues 
of Satan on earth and legions of devils in hell. The 
strength of the soul, entrenched by faith in the un- 
failing Word of God, is impregnable and unconquer- 
able. It was this made Luther an invincible hero in 
the city of Worms; it was this took the fear of man 
irom before the face of John Knox. It could be truly 
said, "There were giants in those days," and this Word 
is the food that gave them gigantic stature and 
.strength. If you would be strong, you must feed 
upon this bread of heaven. Remember, it must not 
only be taken into your memories and receive mental 
examination, it must abide in your souls as the vital 
principle of your intellectual, moral and spiritual life. 
Study it upon your knees, search its depths as for hid 
treasure; let nothing come between your heart and 
the unadulterated truth of God. Some human writ- 
ings are certainly good and helpful, some commen- 
taries and works on theology, expository writings 
and books of sermons may be profitable, but the best 
things may be made the veriest curses; and such, I 
fear, human writings have become in our Sabbath 
schools, pulpits and homes. These galvanized imita- 
tions are laid upon the heart, instead of the Word 
of life, and like non-conductors, they prevent quick- 
ening power from reaching the conscience and heart. 
If you would be strong, put jealously aside everything 
that would come between your soul and the pure 
Word of God, without note or comment; bind this 
to your heart, and strong, pure, eternal life will flow 



THE GOLDEN POT. 161 

from it through every part of your immortal being. 
Faith groweth from the good seed of the Word, 
love feedeth upon a knowledge of Christ, hope rests 
upon immutable promises, and anchors the soul upon 
the infinite merits of a Divine Redeemer. By faith 
in His Word you enter into the refuge of omnipotence 
and become "strong in the Lord and the power of His 
might." Says Daniel, "They that know their God 
shall be strong and do exploits." 

Fifth. Another element of strength mentioned in 
the text is victory over evil. "Ye have overcome the 
wicked one." Whether by wicked one here be meant 
Satan personally, or his wickedness in its multiform 
shapes, the truth is the same, that victory over it is 
not only a proof of strength, but a source of power. 
By every successful battle the kingdom of David 
grew stronger, and Saul weaker; by every victory of 
our arms, the nation's power increased and rebellion 
was enfeebled. The truth is universal, that the victor 
becomes stronger by every conquest. And the 
earlier in life sinful self is subdued, the stronger the 
man will be all his remaining days. He who in youth 
is righted in his whole being, putting his reason, 
natural passions and appetites, in their proper place, 
putting all under pure and righteous law, "casting 
down imagination and every high thing that exalteth 
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing 
into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
Christ," he will be the strong man. Why? Because 
he will not have to fight himself all his days, and can 
combine all his forces against the foe in front. Take 
the man who is the victim of an evil habit for twenty- 
five or thirty years; if it is then broken, still he will 
be comparatively a weak man ever after, unless by 



ifa THE GOLDEN POT. 

marvellous grace. Take one who has for years been 
the bond-slave of sinful passions; he may be emanci- 
pated, but half his strength in after years must be 
used in lighting the fire that threatens to break out 
anew. Take one whose bones have been diseased 
with envy, or whose soul has been hardened in selfish- 
ness; if recovered at all, the greater part of his after 
life must be spent in battling against these fiends, he 
can do little else. Not only is the strength of such 
divided, but if combined is greatly impaired by the 
ravages of old sins. They are but wounded soldiers 
in the field, weak and lame from old hurts. 

But take the man who has early put sinful appetite, 
lust and pride under his feet, who has subordinated 
every power to revelation and right reason, who has 
embraced the life principles of a high, pure Christian 
manhood, who has been made free with that liberty 
"wherewith Christ makes His people free" — the 
chains have fallen from his hands, the fetters are 
broken from his feet, the fear of the slave is taken from 
his heart, and he comes forth disenthralled and en- 
nobled, ready for work or warfare, the peer of angels 
and the terror of devils. Crown him because he is 
royal, put stars on his shoulders, commission him as 
a general, not because, like Diotrephes, he loveth 
pre-eminence, but because he is fitted to command 
and lead the battle, for he has the prestige of victory, 
having already overcome. No earthly distinction can 
exalt him, for he now holds a patent of nobility with 
the seal of the Most High upon it; angels are only 
his equals, God only is above him, and he is even 
promised a seat with the Divine one — "he that over- 
cometh shall sit with Me in My throne." He is one 
of those spoken of by Daniel, who "is strong and 



THE GOLDEN POT. 163 

doing exploits." "He that hath clean hands," says 
Job, "shall be stronger and stronger," he shall not 
only be strong, but shall increase in strength. 

Other things being equal, physical and intellectual 
endowments being the same, the purest among men 
are the strongest. Try them in the presence of temp- 
tation, in the furnace of affliction, wherever true 
strength can be tested, and they will prove good their 
title to heroic power. This was the strength of the 
man Christ Jesus — when the tempter came he had 
"'nothing in Him," nothing of his own evil nature 
within the Holy One, to abet his temptation, or open 
a door for its entrance. And in this respect Christ's 
followers become like Him in strength, through the 
purifying power of His Word, and victory over evil. 
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," 
and, like Moses, shall be strong to endure because 
"seeing Him who is invisible." 

Young men, if you would have the most delightful 
consciousness of strength, if you would enjoy a sov- 
ereignty of power, if you would acquire a royal pre- 
eminence, you must overcome evil, not league with 
Satan; there is no strength in that; not compromise 
with wrong, that is weakness ; not compound with sin, 
that is sure defeat. But overcome, get the mastery, 
vanquish, come off conquerors; then it may be said 
of you, that you "are strong, for the Word of God 
abideth in you." 

Second. The responsibility of such gifts, the claims 
upon such strength. 

Were you so richly gifted for any trifling end? 
Were you so royally endowed for any ignoble pur- 
pose? Certainly not. But for a purpose, end and 
work worthy of such a princely coronation. It is that 



164 THE GOLDEN POT. 

the Lord might make you co-workers with Himself, 
that He might commit to you the God-like work of 
extending and establishing His kingdom, that He 
might put upon you the soldier honors of defending 
and maintaining the empire of His grace and truth 
in the earth. He has given you the power of the sons 
of God, that you may be able to bear the Divine 
armor, the shield of faith, the breastplate of right- 
eousness, the helmet of salvation, and wield with a 
strong arm the irresistible sword of the Spirit. 

As citizens of no mean city, you are called, by 
meekness, truthfulness, courage and holiness, to be 
living epistles, that may be read by your fellow- 
citizens for their conviction and conversion. Amid 
the guilt, corruption and darkness of the city you are 
to walk the streets as "light bearers," "holding forth 
the Word of life," whose shining shall kindle the light 
of hope for wretchedness and despair, and reveal the 
way of life to the lost and condemned. Amid the 
crimes of robbery, peculation, falsehood, deceit, 
grinding avarice, and every evil of the world, you are 
to stand as God's witnesses; behind the counters, in 
the shops, at the merchant's desk, in public and official 
places, in every position, to testify to the social, com- 
mercial and political integrity and purity of Christian 
life. By the power of the closet, a power unseen but 
immeasurable, by the power of young and strong 
hearts in united prayer, by the power of the Sabbath 
school, teaching the whole Word of God, by the 
power of saving truth at the sick bed, by the power of 
loving rebuke and warning to the erring, by the power 
of Christian invitation and entreaty to the wayward 
and the thoughtless, by every power that can tell 
against lewdness, intemperance, and all-engulfing 



THE GOLDEN POT. 165 

infidelity, and in favor of faith, hope, holiness and 
happiness, you are to be co-workers with your pastors 
in extending and establishing Christ's kingdom in this 
place over the hearts, consciences and lives of men! 

But this city may not be the limit of your labors. 
Duty may call you elsewhere. Other friends wait 
for you, and other people faint and cry for your help. 
How beautiful and vast the field that stretches out 
■over the great valleys and plains of Kansas, Nebraska, 
Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico and California, and 
spreads out from the northern border of Washington 
State, nay, from the bounds of Alaska, to the southern 
boundary of Texas! They need you, not only as 
ministers and teachers, not simply as men of letters 
and science, but in the field and the shop, in the manu- 
factory and commerce, to consecrate to holy ends 
these pursuits, to make common toil honorable and 
sacred, to serve the Lord "diligent in business." 
These unmeasured fields, from Alaska to the Gulf, 
God has opened up to the knowledge of the needy, 
suffocating, starving millions of crowded China, India, 
and Europe. Here they are coming, will come, must 
come. If we will not go to them, God will bring them 
to us, and as the wounded man before the Levite, cast 
them down before our faces, and our Christianity must 
heal them or perish with them! 

Here is room for millions of Christian workers, 
to plant here a beneficient cvilization and the Gospel 
of Christ ; to establish and feed a faith of such heavenly 
origin and power that it can take paganism into its 
arms, as a mother the diseased child, not to catch the 
infection, but to give it healing and health. The 
religion of Jesus must be established here with such 
vitality, aggressiveness and strength that it can 



l66 THE GOLDEN POT. 

regenerate heathenism and over all this rich heritage, 
inscribe, "Holiness to the Lord." 

Wherever you go, in whatever business engaged, 
plant there that "Tree of Life whose leaves are for the 
healing of the nations;" set up the kingdom of the 
Lord along the great highways from the east to our 
land, and truly "the kings of the earth shall bring 
their glory and honor into it, and the nations of them 
that are saved shall walk in the light of it!" The field 
of arduous, holy toil is wide, waiting and perishingly 
needy, and God is saying, "I write unto you, young 
men, because ye are strong." 

And, my young friends, you are called to the field 
at a period of almost inspiring activity. A forcible 
writer (Riddell) says, "There is something almost 
magical in the appliances and improvements of this 
age. The rapidity of locomotion, the magnetic vibra- 
tions of thought and feeling over continents and seas, 
the swift ships and iron nerves that are bringing the 
nations together, and binding them as one great 
organic whole, all mark this as a peculiar epoch in 
the history of our race. Surely God means we shall 
use these auxiliaries and elements of power to do 
good." At this period a stirring thought or "word 
fitly spoken" may travel on the wings of lightning 
to thrill a thousand strong hearts, and put a thousand 
strong hands in motion; may wake and nourish faith 
over a continent; nay, more, may cross either ocean, 
and fall sweetly on the ear and heart of the missionary 
in the wilds of Africa or among the valleys and hills 
of the holy land. This is an age of restless activities. 
Motion, action, progress, are now the words that fill 
the vaulted heaven with their stirring demands and 
make humanity's heart pulsate with a stronger bound: 



THE GOLDEN POT. 167' 

leaping, vivifying-, exhilarating impulses, are thrilling 
and moving the souls of men. The old soldier in the 
battle of life might almost covet your position, and 
postpone the rest of heaven, to share with you the 
use of these instrumentalities. To have the vivacity 
of youth and the strength of early manhood, and to 
be called to the vineyard at such a period, might well 
be esteemed an enviable glory. 

But, remember, great are the responsibilities that 
rest upon such gifts and opportunities. In view of 
this, a writer (Rev. Bacon) exclaims, ''Would God 
I could make young Christians know what results are 
depending on them, what interests of the Church and 
a dying world are involved in their future character 
and efforts! When I look on the young Christians 
of this age and reflect that they are soon to sustain the 
ancient glories of the Church of God; when I look 
abroad on the earth and see the crisis that is at hand; 
when I listen to the cries that come from every 
quarter of the world; I seem to see the hoary genera- 
tions of the past rising from their repose to watch the 
progress of the young followers of Christ; I seem to 
hear voices of blest spirits from above cheering them 
on in a career of piety ; I seem to see a world in misery 
turning its imploring hands to them and beseeching 
them to be worthy of their name, their privilege and 
destiny; I seem to hear, I do hear, God Himself speak- 
ing from heaven, 'Be ye faithful unto death and I will 
give you a crown of life!' Faithful to such endow- 
ments, privileges and opportunities!" 

But, my young friends, you are not called in a 
period of promising, arduous, glorious labor only, but 
indications are strong that, before it closes, yours will 
be an age of trial that shall try men's souls, an age 



168 THE GOLDEN POT. 

of spiritual commotion, fierce conflict of thought, and, 
maybe, even of battle, agony and peril. It is already 
begun; the forces are mustering for the onset. We 
seem to have entered upon the intellectual and spiritual 
drill which precedes it, just as the soldier before the 
battle hour burnishes his armor, loosens his sword 
in the scabbard and prepares his ammunition; so every 
young Christian should make preparation for days 
of unusual conflict. Creeds must be sifted and tested 
by the divine touch-stone, faith must grasp with 
stronger hold the eternal promises, the loins must be 
firmly girded about with truth, the digging must be 
deep, and only the true foundation built upon, for 
neither sand nor clay, hay nor stubble, gold, silver 
nor precious stones, will endure that day. Only the 
rock Christ Jesus will remain unmoved, only God's 
truth will abide and God's faithful ones be delivered. 
And as the shadows of that day darken upon us, does 
not every Christian heart desire to get God's children 
nearer together, to close up the ranks? I am fully 
persuaded that there is not a soul that loves eternal 
truth, that loves dying men, that loves the glorious 
Redeemer, but yearns, wrestles and agonizes to draw 
the soldiers of the cross closer together and closer 
around their enthroned Leader. If the ransomed 
hosts of God's elect, the children of faith, the followers 
of the Lamb, the one blood-bought Church, could 
only, with the movement of a united heart, step upon 
the imperishable platform of pure, divine, revealed, 
eternal truth, grasp hands in love and join in holy 
vows of fidelity, what a transporting, what an enrap- 
turing sight that would be! Then, indeed, "terrible 
as an army with banners" would be the shout of her 
victorious song! 



THE GOLDEN POT. 169 

Yet if there is not organic unity, be assured there 
is a unity of spirit among all true children of God, 
all followers of the Lamb, and all the different regi- 
ments acknowledge and obey the one Captain, and, 
encouraged by this and the Commander's promise of 
victory, let us look boldly at the foe in the field. We 
need not turn our view to Europe and the eastern 
world, as I am persuaded that the great valley of 
decision is to be found in our own land. Here are 
to be decided the most momentous questions of time, 
the questions of human freedom and human redemp- 
tion. Here the multitudes, the mixed multitudes, 
are gathering, and will gather, until we have a popu- 
lation of hundreds of millions. The gates of paganism 
have been thrown open and its votaries are crowding 
here to the very portals of the Church of God, it may 
be to compel her to arouse from her apathy. It can 
be no longer a cannonade at a distance, but a fierce 
bayonet charge, a hand-to-hand conflict, to decide 
the question, "If the Lord Jesus be God, follow Him; 
if Baal, then follow him." Shall the Bible, the 
breviary, or the Confucian code — which, guide our 
people through time to eternity? Shall our land be 
one of Christian churches, popish mass-houses, or 
heathen temples? Shall our people pray to the Lord, 
to Mary, to Joss, or the goddess of reason? These 
questions must be met. We have now four great 
councils of the whiskey ring in the principal cities 
of the land, united with a brewer's congress, imperi- 
ously demanding protection and legalization for the 
manufacture of drunkenness, pauperism and crime. 
We have infidel associations, in the name of liberty, 
demandingthe abrogation of the Sabbath, and atheism 
rejecting God from national assemblies, and insult- 



: 7 o 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



ingly pushing His hand from the arm of civil power. 
We have Rome and infidelity thrusting the Bible out 
of the common schools and from the hands of the 
people. We have Roman bishops selecting the best 
sites in our cities and multiplying their chapels all 
along our frontier, and among the colored population 
of the South, she is educating hundreds of our sons 
and daughters, receiving large benefactions from 
Protestants for their own use, and climbing upon 
the vantage ground of political influence, as a balance 
of power. We have paganism building its temples 
on our coast, for the worship of devils, and in our 
courts taking oaths in the name of their idols, by the 
sacrifice of chickens' heads and yellow paper. We 
have spiritualism and Mormonism defying social and 
domestic lav/, and defiling the home. We have Nihil- 
ism and Communism planted in our land, and not only 
Europe, but the United States, feels the earthquake 
throb of discontented millions, toiling under heavy 
burdens. 

These are some of the Anaks of our land, and 
however these allies of the wicked one may disagree 
in some things, they will all agree in opposing the 
kingdom and sovereignty of the holy God. And as 
we see them organizing, combining and consolidating" 
all their forces against Christ, and see the many tokens 
of Divine displeasure in the world, we can scarcely 
resist the conviction that the Almighty is preparing 
the great sacrifice of Ezekiel's vision, where "the 
feathered fowl and beast of the field shall eat the flesh 
of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the 
earth," or. as John in Revelation heard the fowls of 
heaven called to the supper of the great God, "to eat 
the flesh of kings and captains and mighty men, the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 171 

flesh of horse and rider, of bond and free, of small and 
great." 

Surely the evidence is strong that a day of conflict 
is at hand, whether the final battle of Armageddon, 
or not; and the Lord is saying, "I write unto you^ 
young men, because ye are strong." "Put the helmet 
of salvation on, and gird your loins about with truth; 
add righteousness, and add the shield of faith, and take 
the sword of God. Awake and watch: the day is 
near, the great day of God Almighty and the Lamb!" 

Are you ready? Have you on the armor of God? 
Is the Word of God abiding in you? Have you over- 
come the wicked one? Are you strong in the Lord 
and the power of His might? If ready, then mount 
fearlessly the battlements of the foe with this vic- 
torious song upon your lips : 

"The mighty Lord is on my side, 
I will not be afraid; 
For anything that man can do 
My heart is not dismayed." 

And you shall come off "conquerors and more than 
conquerors through Him that loved us." 



X. 

The Preacher's Theme. 

ii They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ" Acts v: 42. 

In the preceding chapter the apostles were for- 
bidden to speak at all this name. They replied, "We 
cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." 
These things they had seen and heard were all ex- 
pressed in preaching Jesus Christ, therefore, "they 
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." This 
is or should be the minister's first, constant, central, 
all-absorbing, all-comprehensive theme, Jesus Christ. 
But one exclaims, "What a narrow theme! A single 
individual! It must soon become trite, worn thread- 
bare, uninteresting, if not stale and barren!" But the 
history of the race disproves the assertion, for this 
is one of the first themes that engaged the tongue of 
man, and its voice has never been silent through the 
six thousand years of the world's travail in guilt and 
misery. It was the theme of Enoch and Noah, 
preachers of righteousness before the flood, the theme 
of earth's wisest legislator, and of gifted seers and 
inspired prophets, of apostles, both illiterate and 
learned. And all along the line of succeeding teachers 
it has engaged as large a share of the cultured, gigantic 
minds of the race as any theme that was ever presented 
to man. And to-day it employs not only the earnest 
simplicity of the moderately gifted, but some of the 
most learned, philosophical, scientific and mighty 
intellects of earth. And it chains the ear and touches 
the heart of millions of the noblest and humblest, the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 173 

wisest and best, the happiest and most miserable of 
the human race. Here philosophy can worthily and 
honorably employ her profoundest researches, science 
may well expend her richest treasures in crowning 
this theme, literature may rightly employ all her 
gathered wealth in presenting and illustrating this 
theme; everything the human mind possesses or can 
attain may be, and should be, made tributary to this. 
The theme is more than worthy of it all. Jesus Christ, 
in the divine excellency of His person and the wonders 
of His incarnation; in the infinite value of His atone- 
ment and the sovereignty and matchless tenderness 
of His love; in the justice and purity of His law and 
the equity and power of His administration; in the 
awful grandeur of His judgment coming and the 
unutterable glory of His eternal reign, the grandest, 
most comprehensive, soul-stirring and profitable 
theme that ever claimed the tongue or ear of man. 
No finite mind, without Divine influence, is fit to 
preach Him, nor without Divine influence is any 
human heart capable of rightly receiving Him. May 
the Spirit reveal Him to both speaker and hearers in 
His unfailing fulness. What are some things com- 
prehended in this theme? What is it to preach Jesus 
Christ? 

It is to teach and present Him in His personal 
character, His two distinct natures, in His Divine 
humanity. Isaiah thus preached Him as "the mighty 
God, the everlasting Father," also the "child born, 
the Son given," "a Man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief. Paul and Jude thus preached Him, "The 
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God 
and our Saviour," "God manifest in the flesh," and 
"the man Christ Jesus." He who does not thus 



J 74 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



preach Christ presents some other being than the 
sent one of God, the Redeemer of men. He must be 
God to give the power of endurance to the humanity 
of a suffering Saviour; He must be God to give Divine 
acceptance and infinite value to His sacrifice; He must 
be God to save forgiven sinners from idolatry. It 
is idolatry to worship any other being than the true 
and very God, yet if Jesus be not Divine there is no 
power, finite nor infinite, can hold redeemed man back 
from idolatry. A pardoned, blood-bought sinner 
cannot but truly worship and adore such a being as 
Jesus Christ, who, through His own death, wrought 
such a salvation for Him. You might as well tell the 
sun not to shine or the bursting clouds not to drop 
their fulness, as to tell the forgiven, saved, rejoicing 
sinner not to worship and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. 
He cannot help it. You must plunge him again into 
unbelief and sin, you must again destroy his spiritual 
life, before you can stop his song or silence his prayers. 

For the same reason He must be God that He may 
"be supremely loved. It is a sin, a robbery, a dethron- 
ing of God to set any other being in the highest place, 
in the royal seat of the heart, to love supremely any 
other being than the Divine One. Yet the redeemed 
cannot but give their strongest, purest love to such 
a Redeemer as the Lord Jesus Christ; this He claims 
and God Himself cannot forbid it. 

He must be God that He may be ever present with 
all His children everywhere, to strengthen them, 
comfort, restrain, correct, guide, protect and deliver 
them; He who is not divine is unfit to be a Saviour 
for guilty man. He must be God that He may judge, 
acquit and crown them. He must also be human, a 
man, a creature, that He may be made subject to law 



\ 

THE GOLDEN POT. 175 

and law-penalties. He must be human that He may 
take the sinner's place of peril and death; that He 
may make His soul an offering and in His own body 
nail our sins to the tree. He must be a man, that 
He may be tempted in all points as we are; yet con- 
quer the tempter, that He may succor those who are 
tempted. He must be a man touched with a feeling 
of human infirmities and sympathizing with human 
trials and afflictions. He must be a man that He 
may so reveal God that l;lind men feeling after may 
find the Invisible One. 

As He must be preached in the reality and suffici- 
ency of His Godhead, so He must be preached in 
the perfection and fitness of His manhood. Without 
this He is not a complete Christ nor fully preached. 
This precious doctrine of the divine humanity of Jesus 
Christ is the foundation stone of the whole superstruc- 
ture of our salvation, without which you can build no 
ark of safety for guilty man — without which you can 
rear no temple of worship for His followers. You 
can ask for no more interesting theme than is given 
you in Christ. When men talk about earthly kings, 
rulers of mighty empires, crowned potentates and 
fitting intellect and learning, and worthy of being 
heard, but we preach Jesus Christ, "The blessed and 
only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords, who 
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no 
man can approach unto," the self-existent and inde- 
pendent Creator of all created things, "far above all 
principality, power, might and dominion; above every 
name that is named not only in this world, but that 
also which is to come;" the absolute and rightful 
Sovereign of the universe, whom "the heaven, even 
the heaven of heavens, cannot contain." And is this 



IjC THE GOLDEN POT. 

subject not more than worthy of the highest powers 
of the teacher, and worthy of being heard before any 
other that can claim the ear or the heart of man? 
When men tell of mighty wonders they expect to be 
heard because of their subject, but we tell of wonders 
upon which angels gazed with astonishment, the world 
doubted and rejected, and even God's chosen people 
so staggered in unbelief at the hearing of it that the 
prophet exclaimed in anguish, "Who hath believed 
our report?" The most marvellous thing in all the 
annals of time we preach and perhaps most marvellous 
in all the annals of eternity — that the Ancient of Days 
became the infant of days! that the fulness of im- 
mensity was wrapped in swaddling bands and laid in a 
manger! that omnipotence was folded in the arms of 
helplessness! We tell of the illimitable One occupy- 
ing a local habitation and becoming a subject citizen 
of Judea; we tell of the Holy One clothing Himself 
in the likeness of sinful flesh, the Son of God becoming 
the Son of man, deity marrying humanity, so that they 
are no more twain but one person forever! We tell 
of the Lord of heaven choosing a bride from earth, 
that He may make her His princess and queen, be- 
coming her husband, that she may share His throne 
and glory! We tell of the guilty pardoned, restored, 
promoted and crowned, yet law, justice, holiness and 
truth vindicated and magnified ; we tell of two natures 
and three offices in one person, a bleeding sacrifice, a 
sanctifying altar and an officiating priest all in onef 
We tell of Jesus bowing the heavens and lifting up 
the earth to meet them! In Christ, indeed, is dis- 
played the wonder of wonders in the universe; there- 
fore Paul exclaims, "Without controversy great is the 
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, 



THE GOLDEN POT. ijj 

justified in Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the 
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into 
glory!" 

If wonders are worthy of attention, why should 
not this theme claim the deepest interest and profound- 
est thought of the immortal soul? 

2d. To preach Jesus Christ is to teach and present 
Him in His substitution and atoning sacrifice. Isaiah 
thus preached Him, "He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions, bruised for our iniquities," "the Lord laid 
on Him the iniquities of us all." Paul thus preached. 
Him, "He was delivered for our offences, that we 
might obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, who died for 
us." Peter, Jude and John so preached Him. He 
who would release the prisoner and at the same time- 
condemn his guilt and vindicate law and justice, must 
take the prisoner's place. He who would save a 
criminal in harmony with righteousness and holiness,, 
himself must assume the guilt of the guilty, take his 
position at the bar, take his law-place, stand at the 
judgment seat in his stead, receive his sentence and 
endure his penalty. So Jesus must be preached as 
"bearing the iniquities of us all," standing in our law- 
place, answering to our summons, standing at God's 
judgment bar in the sinner's stead and enduring the 
wrath and death due the sinner. 

Jesus is to be exhibited in the ministry as condemn- 
ing sin by nailing it to His cross; exalting holiness, 
vindicating justice, magnifying law, confirming the 
judgment of truth and most gloriously displaying 
mercy and love in His voluntary death in the sinner's 
stead ! Jesus is to be preached as thus procuring full, 
free, everlasting pardon and complete salvation for 
guilty men. Thus preached as the tender, willing, 



178 THE GOLDEN POT. 

gracious, loving Redeemer, the all-sufficient, only- 
Saviour of sinners. He is to be thus presented to 
dying, condemned men, as their only hope, their only 
ransom, the only possible way of salvation, and the 
sure, never failing way of life and happiness for all 
who receive Him. He must be preached as righteous- 
ness for the unrighteous, as pardon for the guilty, as 
hope for the wretched, as happiness for the miserable, 
as the advocate and intercessor for the criminal at the 
bar. He must be preached as riches for the poor, 
clothing for the naked, bread for the hungry and water 
for the thirsty. He must be preached as a refuge for 
the oppressed, comfort to the afflicted, strength for 
the weak, life for the dead and glory for the risen. 
He must be preached as having a fulness that supplies 
all the wants of man for time and eternity. He who 
does not thus preach Jesus Christ, constantly, plainly, 
fervently, affectionately, plucks the heart out of the 
Gospel and leaves it a cold carcass, a lifeless corpse, 
puts out its light, darkens all its glory and robs the 
perishing world of all hope and joy. He preaches 
another Gospel which angels dare not do, and falls 
under the execration called down by the apostle Paul, 
"Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any 
other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let 
him be accursed." 

3d. Jesus Christ is to be preached as the law-giver 
and administrator of law on the earth. Jeremiah, i: 
10, thus preached Christ when he said, "See, I have 
this day set Thee over the nations and over the king- 
doms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, 
and to throw down, and to build, and to plant." 
Isaiah, lx: 12, thus preached Him, "The nation and 
kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish, yea, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 179 

those nations shall be utterly wasted." The Psalmist, 
xxii: 28, thus preached Him when he said, "The king- 
dom is the Lord's, and He is governor among the 
nations. " Second Psalm, "Now, kings, be wise and 
kiss the Son." John the Baptist thus preached Him 
"when he gave law to the Roman soldiers and rebuked 
Herod, condemning his incest. Paul thus preached 
Him when he said, 1 Timothy i: 9, "The law is for 
the lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinners, un- 
holy and profane, man-slayers, man-stealers, liars, 
perjured persons and any other thing contrary to 
sound doctrine." And when Paul demands subjection 
to the powers that be as the ordinance and ministers of 
God, he preaches Christ as law-giver and adminis- 
trator of law on earth. King Jesus has enacted laws 
for all His creatures, laws to guide and restrain and 
tind all intelligent beings in His dominions. And 
lie fails to preach Jesus Christ who does not preach 
His law, applying it to all the conduct of men. He 
puts the Redeemer out of His kingly office, unscepters, 
uncrowns and dethrones Him. 

His law is to control men in all the relations, cir- 
■cumstances, positions and duties of life. It is to guide 
maid and mother in the kitchen, the family circle, 
the parlor and social life ; it is to guide man as brother, 
friend, father, husband and citizen, as legislator and 
ruler; it is to guide his conduct on his farm, in his 
counting house, on the wharf, in his politics and his 
office. A man cannot go where this law does not 
reach him, he can engage in nothing that this law 
does not either approve or condemn him; he can find 
no place where this law does not guide, restrain or 
hind. It is illimitable as God's empire, omnipotent 
•as His hanci, and searching as His eye. It has its seat 



180 THE GOLDEN POT. 

and source in the Divine bosom and its outreach over 
all intelligent creation. They who flout at the "higher 
law," the law of Jesus Christ, scoff at the throne of 
Jehovah. They who would drive Christ's law from 
Wall Street and the wharf, from the board of trade, 
the real estate and broker's office, forget that He 
overturned the tables of the money changers and 
stands by while the rich cast their gifts into the trea- 
sury. They who disregard Christ's law in their politi- 
cal relations and actions, deny that He is the Prince 
of the kings of the earth. And that minister is not 
faithful to Jesus Christ who does not preach His law 
against all the sins of men in every duty, against all 
the unrighteousness of government and all the evils 
of society. Toward His redeemed people Christ holds 
the law in His hands as mediator — it is not to them 
a binding and condemning power; it is only a guide 
in life and a standard of holiness for His children. 

But Christ is not only legislator, but also adminis- 
trator of law. Seated upon a glorious high throne of 
universal sovereignty, He administers law over all 
nations and peoples, over all kings, potentates, princi- 
palities and powers on earth. He is head over all 
things for the Church; for her sake time is prolonged 
and the old and hoary earth has being; for her sake 
suns rise and set, moons full and wane, and planets 
keep their orbits; for her sake thrones are set up and 
pulled down, kings are crowned and uncrowned. 
The annals of time are but the annals of Jesus' reign. 
History, sacred or profane, is but the unconscious 
recorder for His administration, whether its pages are 
blotted with blood or sweet with songs of peace. 
When iniquity has risen to a flood tide, then He has 
lifted the standard of war, called the sword from its 



THE GOLDEN POT. 181 

scabbard and given it a commission to slay. The 
royal iron-rimmed chariots of war He has dashed 
together and broken in pieces, covering lands with 
their slain, with the shattered implements of death and 
all the debris of the battle field. Beneath cities as 
great in crime as grandeur He has exploded mines 
and buried them from sight. He has shaken the 
guilty world until her thrones have crumbled in the 
dust, and her princes, pallid with fear, have fainted at 
His presence. He has sent famine, pestilence, flood, 
desolation and death, and made crowded lands a 
desert. In all these ways He has executed law on 
the earth. Then when He would give earth a rest 
and comfort His Church, He has broken the bow, 
cut the spear and burned the chariot in the fire; He 
has stilled the tumult of the people, calmed the waves 
and hushed the storms into peace. 

He who fails to preach Jesus Christ in the equity 
and power of His administration over the human race, 
hides one of the most glorious exhibitions of His 
kingly majesty and robs His children of one of the 
sweetest consolations of His kingdom and sovereignty. 
Show them Jesus Christ holding the world in His hand 
for their sakes, setting up and throwing down, making 
war and making peace for their sakes — then they can 
sing, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth !" 

4th. Jesus Christ is to be preached in His judgment 
coming, and the unutterable glory of His eternal reign. 
Daniel thus preached Christ, vii: 9, 10 and 14: "I 
beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient 
of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow 
and the hair of his head like the pure wool; His throne 
was like the fiery flame and His wheels a burning fire. 



1 82 THE GOLDEN POT. 

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him; 
thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the 
judgment was set and the books were opened. And 
there was given Him dominion and glory and a king- 
dom that all people, nations and languages should 
serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion,, 
which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that 
which shall not be destroyed." The Psalmist, 1: 3, 4, 
thus preached Him, "Our God shall surely come and 
shall not keep silence. He shall call to the heavens 
from above and to the earth that He may judge His 
people." Paul thus preached Him, Thessalonians 
iv: 16, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
and with the trump of God." Peter, 2 Peter iii: 12, 
exhorts Christians "to be looking for and hasting unto 
the coming of the day of God." The beloved John 
thus preached Him, Rev. i: 7, "Behold, He cometh 
with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, they also 
that pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall 
wail because of Him." 

Once He came in infant weakness and the infirmities 
of sinful flesh, came to be tempted, tried, rejected, 
despised, scorned, persecuted, scourged and crucified; 
came to walk through the fiery furnace of Divine 
wrath and hide Himself in the grave. But He shall 
come again, "without sin unto salvation and to be 
admired of all them that believe." He shall come with 
ten thousands of His saints, with all His holy angels 
and the full glory of His Godhead. The scornful 
world will greet Him with wailings in that day, for 
then shall the wicked and unbelieving be consumed as 
the stubble and chaff of the summer threshing floor, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 183 

for "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, 
and pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and 
the works that are therein shall be burned up;" for 
with conflagration fires will He purge this polluted 
world. Then shall He set up His great white throne, 
and, seated thereon as the Son of man, He shall assem- 
ble all the inhabitants of earth before Him in judg- 
ment. The wicked, unbelieving and condemned He 
shall drive forever from His presence, and shall gather 
crowned believers in glory around His throne. Then 
shall begin the indescribable grandeur of His eternal 
reign. Then shall the sun be quenched, the moon 
shall wane to full no more, and the stars shall fade 
out forever, because the glory of God and the Lamb, 
the ineffable splendor of the enthroned Redeemer, shall 
make beautiful and endless day in that holy world. 
And His redeemed shall walk the golden streets of 
that New Jerusalem with songs and everlasting joy 
upon their heads ; they shall rest beneath the shade and 
eat the fruit of the tree of life and bathe in the blissful 
tide of the river of peace. This shall be the consum- 
mation of that great salvation, which began in the 
manger, triumphed on Calvary and brought immortal 
life out of the sepulchre. And to preach this salvation 
is to preach Jesus Christ. 

This is but a very weak and unworthy attempt to 
present this great subject, it is only a faint, almost 
imperceptible shadow of this glorious theme. This 
theme, which runs through all the momentous events 
of time, from its dawn to its consummation, deep and 
broad enough to demand the profoundest thought 
and outreach of the human intellect, and more than 
worthy of being illustrated by all the research and 



184 THE GOLDEN POT. 

treasures of human learning. Philosophers and sages 
are honored in being permitted to study and teach 
it, and yet its most precious things are so plain that 
the simplest may get a profitable and comforting un- 
derstanding of it. 

Such, my hearers, is, I think, the preacher's theme, 
the grandest, profoundest, most comprehensive and 
precious; it is the fullest of sweetness that ever fell 
from the tongue or entered into the ear of man; it is 
strongest in consolation that ever spoke to the heart 
of wretchedness; it is wonderful and interesting 
enough to engage the attention of angels, much more 
any inhabitants of this poor, fallen world. Our 
preaching is designed to glorify God; to do this its 
subject must be Jesus Christ. "He is the brightness 
of the Father's glory, and the express image of His 
person." The light of the glory of God shines in the 
face of Jesus Christ. We may preach philosophy 
and praise and honor men, we may teach literature 
and science and display eloquence, culture and learn- 
ing and please men, but we will not thus glorify God. 
In the wonderful powers and attainments of the human 
mind and in all the manifold works of creation and 
providence, there is only a shadowed brightness, but 
a faint gleam of Divine glory, but in the Gospel it 
shines in the face of Jesus Christ, it breaks forth into 
noon-tide splendor, beauty and power, and He must 
be preached that God may be glorified in all His 
perfections, that justice, holiness and truth may be 
joined with mercy and love, in the salvation of men. 

Again, the ministry is designed to save men. To do 
this we must preach Jesus Christ. He is "the power 
of God and the wisdom of God for salvation to them 
that believe." "There is no other name given under 



THE GOLDEN POT. 185 

heaven whereby we must be saved." To do this Paul 
determined to know nothing among sinners but "Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified." Remember, we are not 
simply to civilize and reform men, or to educate and 
refine men — this the Gospel will also do — but we are 
to be especially instrumental in saving men from sin 
and wrath and misery and this can be done only by 
preaching Jesus Christ. It is God's appointed and 
commanded way, and however foolish it may be 
esteemed by men, it is infinitely wise and the only way. 
We may employ with burning zeal, unwearied energy 
and restless activity any device of man, every other 
possible scheme, but whenever the clear, plain, full 
preaching of Jesus Christ ceases, then the conversion 
and salvation of men will stop. 

Then, if the minister would honor the most shining 
gifts God has bestowed upon him, he must usefully 
employ every intellectual power, his most valued 
attainments and learning, and let him cease not to 
teach and to preach Jesus Christ. If he would save 
men from sin, misery and perdition, and most richly 
bless a wretched world, let him cease not to teach and 
preach Jesus Christ. He can in no other way so truly 
honor himself and benefit his race as in faithfully and 
fearlessly teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. To 
teach men the purest principles and profoundest wis- 
dom of philosophy is nothing to this; to uncover the 
most useful and precious secrets of science is not to 
be compared to this. He may gather the choicest 
garlands of literature and twine them on the brows 
of men, he may show them the treasures and wonders 
of a buried world, he may reveal to them the magnitude 
and glory of the stars, but it is inexpressibly more 
honored and blessed to reveal to them the grace and 
glory of Jesus Christ. 



1 86 THE GOLDEN POT. 

And when the Father who sent Him and the Spirit 
who reveals Him in the soul shall endue his ministry 
with power to preach Christ fully, faithfully, affection- 
ately and fearlessly, then will the world believe he is 
the sent one of God. 

My hearers, we all have Christ presented to us in 
His Divine humanity as a suitable Saviour, presented 
as a substitute and atoning sacrifice in our stead; if 
we will accept and trust Him as a Saviour, our only 
Saviour, take His holy law as our rule and guide in 
life, honor and obey Him as our Redeemer and King — 
then with hope and joy we may wait His judgment- 
coming and enter fully and forever into His everlasting 
kingdom and glory. 



XL 

Our King. 

ii Tke Lord is our King,'' Isaiah xxxiii: 22. 

We are republicans, yet acknowledge a king — 
subjects, willing and loyal subjects of a republican 
government. The most obedient subjects of this King 
are the best citizens of a republic. No tyrants have 
ever been more fickle, unjust, cruel and oppressive 
than that tyrant king, the majority, yet we prefer a 
republic, believing it possible, by intelligence and 
Christian virtue, to make it the best human govern- 
ment on earth. It if true that kings have gambled 
with the liberties of mankind for nearly six thousand 
years, robbed their subjects and reddened earth with 
slaughter; yet if kings could only be always sufficiently 
wise and immutably just and good, this would be 
the most ancient, original and best form of government 
for mankind. And such a king we have. While we 
are citizens of a republic, we are also subjects of a 
King and kingdom before and above our republic, 
for "the Lord is our King." "Our King" is a Divine 
man. One who has joined Divine wisdom, goodness, 
justice and power to manhood, and in this two-fold 
nature has become our King, as the Lord Jesus Christ. 

First. Birth of "our King." Our King was born 
in Bethlehem of Judea, nearly nineteen hundred years 
ago. His mother's name was Mary, a peasant woman 
of the despised little village of Nazareth. His family 
worked at the carpenter's trade and earned their daily 
bread by "the sweat of the face;" they had no distinc- 



j 88 THE GOLDEN POT. 

tion, no rank, no worldly wealth nor honors. Earth's 
great ones would usually be ashamed of such a lineage, 
birth-place and condition, and some earthly kings have 
invented great lies and legends to hide the lowliness 
and obscurity of their birth. But no one ever heard 
an intimation that "our King" was ashamed of His 
parentage, place or position. And we rejoice in this 
fact. When we want a ruler here, we choose him from 
among the people — those who have earthly kings 
desire they shall be of their own kind. And we rejoice 
that our King is one of us. 

Second. Genealogy of "our King." But He has a 
lineage that runs far back of Nazareth, Bethlehem or 
Jerusalem, far beyond and above Solomon, David, 
Abraham or Adam, as the eternal Son of the eternal 
Father! He can call the Creator and Sovereign of the 
universe Father, as no mere created being could. And 
the Father says, "This is My only beloved Son," as 
He does not declare of any creature He ever spake 
into being. He was an equal on His Father's throne, 
the King over all subjects in the universe, before He 
"became "our King." No people ever had or will have 
a king of such noble, honorable and exalted lineage 
as ours, "This glorious One," "The mighty God," 
"The Father's Son!" 

Third. When was "our King" proclaimed? When 
the covenant of redemption was entered into between 
Him and His Father, He then began to exercise His 
royal office for us, "before the mountains were brought 
forth or hills settled," then, by Solomon, He says, 
"were His delights with the sons of men." And from 
the first promise to our fallen parents in Eden He 
"began to show His kingly grace ; but He was not for- 
mally proclaimed by God King in our world until, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 189 

having joined deity to humanity, He stood beneath 
the baptismal water on the banks of Jordan and the 
Holy Spirit, in visible form, descended upon Him,, 
and the voice of the Father was heard saying, "This 
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
Then the eternal King anointed and announced His. 
Son as prince of the kings of the earth, to reign over 
the earth according to His royal will. Then Christ 
could say to His disciples, "I appoint unto you a 
kingdom, as My Father has appointed unto Me." 
And when He hung upon the cross, God constrained 
even Pilate to acknowledge and proclaim His royal 
right and title. We may thus say that at Jordan and 
Calvary it was proclaimed to heaven, earth and hell 
that Jesus was the elect and only King of menl 
"Notwithstanding, have I set My King upon My holy 
hill of Zion." 

Fourth. When was "our King" inaugurated? In- 
auguration is a great day with earthly kings. Armies 
are called out with all "the pomp and glorious circum- 
stance of war;" the high officers of state, in all the 
glittering regalia of rank and ensigns of power, assem- 
ble, and, amid applauding multitudes, with shout and 
songs of joy, they set their king upon the throne and 
set the crown upon his head. Some such inaugura- 
tion, I believe, "our King" received, when from Mount 
Olivet He ascended and "a cloud received Him out of 
sight;" ascended up far above all principality and 
power and might and dominion and "sat down at the 
right hand of the majesty on high." Having over- 
come, "He sat with His Father in His throne," then, 
"He set upon His head a crown of purest gold." Then 
all the angels and high archangels and principalities 
and powers of heaven assembled and, I think, they 



190 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



sang something like this: "Lift up your heads, O ye 
gates, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the 
King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of 
glory? Who is this? The Lord, strong and mighty; 
the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O 
ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and 
the King of glory shall come in!" 

"This wonderful King, so true and brave, 
This righteous King, so strong to save, 
That vanquished Satan and the grave, 
Is our victorious King!" 

And with angel shout and song and joy of those 
already redeemed, they welcome Him to His media- 
torial throne and crown! But I believe "our King" 
will have another inauguration when "He has put 
all enemies under His feet," when He has overthrown 
all the powers of hell, has conquered and subdued all 
the earth, He will again ascend in the dyed garments 
of victory, having written on His thigh and vesture 
"King of kings and Lord of lords." The waiting 
throne above will greet Him with the twenty-fourth 
Psalm and the "song of Moses and the Lamb;" and all 
"the armies of heaven, upon white horses, clothed in 
fine linen, white and clean," shall be His retinue and 
guard of honor, and all the prophets and apostles and 
martyrs and all redeemed saints of earth will come 
after Him with palms and harps and songs, "as the 
voice of a great multitude and the voice of many 
waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
'Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!' " 

My hearers, I hope to be present at that inaugura- 
tion, and hope to greet you in that procession! But 
we have been caught up and carried away by this 



THE GOLDEN POT. 191 

rapturous vision that awaits us, but we must come 
back to earth and for awhile yet follow "our King" 
and His members through this sinful world. 

Fifth. What is the history of "our King?" Of His 
infancy, youth and early manhood little is known, 
we only know He was "the holy child," the obedient, 
upright youth and the perfect man. The first three 
years after He was proclaimed King on the banks 
of Jordan were years of privation, toil, travail, perse- 
cution and suffering, ending in ignominious death. 
Since that His visible life on earth has only been 
through His mystical body, the Church, and in the 
persons of His loyal followers; with whom He has 
walked through waters and great rivers, through fur- 
nace fires and flames kindled for them. The history 
of the elect Church is the history of "our King." 
Read the lives of her faithful teachers and preachers, 
lives of her holy men and women and children, her 
true witnesses; read her martyr roll and her march 
through wilderness and desert and mountain region, 
through night and darkness and storm, through 
faggot fires and tears and blood, with mingled plead- 
ings and groanings and songs and thanksgivings, ap- 
parent defeats and sure triumphs; this has been the 
life of the Church and this has been the visible history 
of "our King" on earth. 

Sixth. The thrones of "our King." Unlike any 
other royal personage, our King has a two-fold nature 
and occupies two thrones. His high throne of glory 
is in the heaven of heavens. There He is "the Lamb 
in the midst of the throne," and David says, "Thou 
Tiast prepared Thy throne in the heavens and Thy 
Tdngdom ruleth over all!" Before this throne He 
receives the homage and service of all dominions, 



1 92 THE GOLDEN POT. 

principalities and powers of the universe; thence He 
issues His commands and royal decrees that angelic 
messengers gladly and swiftly execute, whether of 
judgment or mercy, whether to destroy or save. But 
in His Church on earth He fills a throne of grace, 
before which He hears the petitions of sinful men and 
from whence He issues His royal pardons; from thence 
He sends out His gracious proclamation of Gospel 
terms and His royal promises of help and strength 
and love, and pronounces His royal judgments of 
mercy to the penitent. Here "are set thrones of 
judgment, the thrones of the house of David." To 
this throne we may come boldly and obtain mercy 
and find grace to help in time of need. 

Seventh. The sceptres of "our King." As He fills 
two thrones, so He wields two sceptres. From the 
throne of His grace He holds out the sceptre of His 
Gospel love, the truth of His mercy and favor. If 
any sinner of earth approaches this throne He holds 
out this golden sceptre that He may kiss it and be 
assured of royal pardon and peace. This is the rod 
of His strength, which He puts forth in Zion by the 
power of His Word and Spirit, to win and gather and 
rule the hearts of His people on earth. The other 
sceptre the Psalmist calls a rod of iron, the sceptre of 
His almightiness and holy wrath, that He wields in 
love for righteousness and hatred of wickedness, with 
which He breaks in pieces mighty men and crumbles 
earthly thrones in the dust. The right hand of "our 
King," that holds this sceptre, teaches terrible things 
in justice, as He rides forth prosperously for meekness, 
truth and righteousness. 

Eighth. Who are the subjects of "our King?" All 
the wicked spirits that roam the universe and all the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 193 

devils in hell. Over all these He has authority, for 
He says, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and 
earth." While in person on earth He made them 
feel their subjection by casting them out, restraining 
and commanding them. And now He shortens or 
lengthens their chain at His pleasure, and limits all 
their operations just as it suits His purpose and glory. 
All disobedient, rebellious people of earth are His 
subjects. Potentates, kings, princes and magistrates, 
strong and weak, high and low, learned and unlearned, 
rich and poor. Some of these acknowledge Him not, 
because they are ignorant of Him; others hate Him 
without a cause, rebel against Him and seek to thwart 
His purposes and overthrow His kingdom; and while 
He does not take away their freedom and responsibil- 
ity, yet He does set bounds to their rage, as He does 
to the proud waves of the sea. He defeats their pur- 
poses and causes even their wrath to praise Him. 

But He has multitudes of holy, loyal, angelic and 
redeemed subjects, who serve, worship and honor Him 
in loving loyalty. 

Ninth. The laws of "our King." He is an absolute 
sovereign and His will is the only and unchangeable 
law; and all the statutes His subjects are required to 
obey, and that guide, restrain and bind them, are 
decrees of His own wisdom and love. These are 
written for us in His law book, and they are holy and 
just and good, designed for and adapted to the happi- 
ness of His subjects; for "righteousness is the girdle 
of His loins and faithfulness the girdle of His reins." 
The law of kindness is in His mouth, and the law of 
redeeming love issues from the throne of His grace. 

Tenth. The dominions of "our King." 

1st. He has an essential, rightful dominion of 



194 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



justice. This includes all on earth, all under the whole 
heaven, all within the boundless universe. The king- 
dom and the dominion and the greatness of the king- 
dom under the whole heaven and above the heavens 
are His, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. 

2d. The dominion of His grace is within His 
Church, over His redeemed people, wherever His 
throne of grace and Gospel sceptre are acknowledged. 
This dominion He is continually extending, from State 
to State, from country to country, from nation to 
nation, daily adding redeemed and loyal subjects to it. 
And this He will continue to do until "all ends of the 
earth shall see the salvation of our God," until the 
earth shall be filled with His glory and the knowledge 
of the Lord cover the earth as the waters the sea." 
"All kings shall fall down before Him and all nations 
shall serve Him." Then this dominion of grace shall 
be co-extensive with His rightful dominion on earth. 

Eleventh. The army of "our King." This army 
numbers myriads that none can enumerate; it consists, 
of various divisions, yet all execute His will. The 
tiniest insects of earth are employed by Him and 
swarms of flies and bees and hornets and frogs and 
locusts, caterpillar and cankerworm, are in His army, 
and with these He destroyed the pride and power of 
Egypt, drove the giants of Canaan before them and 
sorely chastised ungrateful Israel. Another division 
is made up of the lightnings that come and say unto 
Him, "Here we are," and the floods and the storm 
clouds and the darkness and the hail and the snow 
and the frost and the fire and earthquake and the pes- 
tilence. These have shaken down the palaces and 
fortresses of His foes, consumed their wealth and 
strength and swept them from the face of the earth. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 195 

Another division is made up of holy and loyal angels, 
before one of which the hosts of Assyria melted like 
frost before the sun. And many other hosts of earth 
have perished in the same way and knew not who had 
slain them. Angels stood guard around the prophet 
Elijah, and are ministering spirits to the heirs of 
salvation. 

"The angel of the Lord encamps, and round encompasseth 
All those about that do Him fear, and them delivereth." 

Another division of His army is made up of patri- 
archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, missionaries, 
preachers, teachers, and all His loyal followers, and 
even the little children of the Sabbath school, who love 
Him, for the prophecy is, "A little child shall lead 
them,'"' and "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings 
He has ordained strength to still the enemy and 
avenger!" This latter division operates only in the 
dominion of His grace, round the throne of His mercy, 
and under the sceptre of His love. But "our King" 
leads all the divisions and utters His voice before all 
His army, for it is very great. 

Twelfth. The conquests of "our King." His 
personal conquest began when by faith in the Word 
of Divine truth He met the great adversary in the 
wilderness, on the mountain and the pinnacle of the 
temple, and overcame him there. Then, during His 
life, He met and defeated Him again and again. Then 
in Gethsemane and on Calvary He was encompassed 
about and assaulted by ail the legions of hell. Sore, 
bitter, bloody was the conflict, for He was left alone; 
angels stood aloof, God hid His face, earth grew dark 
and hell roared in triumph. Although stained with 
His own blood and faint with wounds, yet He sur- 
rendered not to the enemy, but voluntarily gave up 



196 THE GOLDEN POT. 

His own life and died a victor! Then "He spoiled 
principalities and powers, making a show of them 
openly," and unfurled a banner of victory that has 
never been folded since. And after a three days' rest 
in the grave He tore open the sepulchre and fulfilled 
the promise that is written, "O death, I will be thy 
plagues! O grave, 1 will be thy destruction!" Then, 
says the Psalmist, "He went up with a shout, the Lord 
with the sound of a trumpet." It was the shout of 
triumph. Then He gathered His great army under 
His power and with the crown on His head He leads 
them and utters His voice before them. He has made 
already great conquests in the earth, but He shall 
make yet far greater. All foes shall fall before Him; 
heathen idolatry, darkness and superstition, Moham- 
medan fanaticism, cruelty and delusion; papal assump- 
tion, ignorance and corruption; despotic oppression 
and slavery; infidelity, atheism and anarchy, intem- 
perance, lewdness, Mormonism and robbery, national 
rebellion, cruelty and crime. Yes, my hearers, earth 
still has dark places that are the habitations of horrid 
cruelty and multitudes of wrongs and sorrows and 
griefs, but be not troubled, "our King" will yet right 
them all. Each of these foes and all others not named, 
will fall before one or another division, or all the 
divisions of His army combined. Wait till the battle 
ends. The division of His grace, the soldiers of the 
cross, are to-day following their King and leader up 
the Mississippi and over the Rocky Mountains; down 
the Columbia and the great river of Alaska; up the 
Red River and the Rio Grande. They are marching 
after our King around the Yellow Sea and up the 
Yang-Tse-Kiang of China, and among the flowery 
islands of Japan; through the Gulf of Siam and up the 
Cambojia; up the Ganges and along the Ural moun- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



197 



tains; beyond the Persian gulf and up the Tigris and 
Euphrates; up the mysterious Nile and the great 
Congo, into the heart of the Dark Continent! Soon 
the feet of those that "bring glad tidings of good 
things, that publish salvation," will be seen on every 
mountain top of the earth, and the soldiers of the cross, 
the army of "our King," marching along all the 
streams of earth with songs of praise. The conquests 
of "our King" have only fairly begun; His purpose 
is revealed, but their fruits are ripening fast; and they 
shall go on until "Afric's dusky swarms, that from 
Morocco to Angola dwelt and drank the Niger from 
his native wells, or roused the lion in Numidian groves" 
have heard His name! And "Egypt, casting her gods 
into the Nile, and black Ethiopia, that shadowless 
beneath the 'torrid burned' shall come to Him!" 
And the "silken tribes of Asia," and "Ishmael's wan- 
dering race," and "all the tribes that dwelt from Tigris 
to the Ganges wave and worshipped fire or Brahma;" 
and "the Tartar hordes that roamed from Oby's bank 
southward to the wondrous wall;" the tribes of 
Europe, the Russ, the Pole, the Greek, the Turk, the 
Spaniard and the Gaul, all these shall own "our King," 
Messiah's reign! His soldiers' march shall never halt 
until the utmost bounds of the earth have heard His 
royal name. 

"For this cause to the world He came; 

For this He suffered grief and shame, 

And dying, rose, and won the name 
He bears, the King of kings. 

"His sword's still girded on His thigh, 
His right to reign who dare deny? 
Or who the armies can defy, 
Of our almighty King?" 



198 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Thirteenth. How long will "our King" reign? The 
reigns of other kings are ended sometimes by the loss 
of their crown; if not, in a few years death is sure 
to depose them. But "our King" is invincible and 
omnipotent, therefore can never lose His crown in any 
contest, and over Him death has no power. True, 
He died once, to satisfy, honor and magnify the law 
He was to administer; died to save those who were 
under the law, who had broken and were condemned 
by it; died, but rose again and proclaimed Himself, "I 
am He that liveth and was dead." 

Paul says, "He shall reign until He hath put all 
enemies under His feet; then He shall deliver the 
kingdom to the Father." Whatever this may mean, 
I know that He shall reign "as long as the sun and 
moon endures; that His name shall endure forever, 
and His dominion shall not pass away, and of His 
kingdom there shall be no end." And He that over- 
cometh shall sit down with Him in His throne. 
Therefore, whatever Paul's language may mean, there 
is some sense in which His reign is forever and ever. 
We could not bear the thought that He should ever 
cease to be "our King." Be assured this can never 
be, for He is our eternal King, and we shall see His 
glory! 

Fourteenth. The glory of "our King." Some 
earthly kings glory in many things they possess and 
do, but none can compare in glory with "our King." 
Besides all the glory He had with the Father "before 
the world was," there is put upon this all the glory He 
won in His achievements as "our King." Glorious 
in His exalted and Divine lineage, glorious in His 
perfect manhood life on earth, glorious in His con- 
quering death, glorious in His destruction of the grave, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



199 



glorious in His history on earth, glorious in His 
throne of glory and of grace; glorious in His golden 
sceptre of love and His iron sceptre of destruction, 
glorious in His law, holy, just and good, glorious in 
His dominions of power, justice and grace, glorious 
in His great and invincible army, glorious in His con- 
quests by His royal followers, glorious in the fruits 
of His Spirit and the countless trophies of His grace, 
that He shall bring back in triumph! When all this 
glory is concentrated and blended with the glory 
which He had with the Father, "before the world was," 
surely it will make a brightness of glory, that nothing 
else will be needed to lighten with eternal day the 
heavenly world. 

Then in due time we shall enter into and partake 
of His peerless, eternal glory. 



XII. 

Beautiful Situation of the Church. 

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, 
the city of the great King,' 1 Psalm xlviii: 2. 

Many scholars suppose this Psalm was written dur- 
ing the reign of Jehoshaphat, after his great victory- 
over the combined armies of Ammon,Moab andEdom, 
It was evidently written when Jerusalem was in 
splendor and prosperity, and the temple in its glory. 
That great blind bard, Milton, who saw not with the 
eye of sense, but of the soul, thus describes the capital 
of Judea: 

"Fair Jerusalem, the holy city, lifted high her towers, 
And higher yet the glorious temple reared 
Her pile, far off, appearing like a mount 
Of alabaster, tipt with golden spires." 

And modern travellers who have walked about her 
mountain fastnesses, along the brow of the Gihon and 
Hinnom valleys on the west, and the Cheesemongers 
on the east, and from the side of Olivet have seen the 
rising sun gild her lofty towers and bulwarks, and 
bathe in light each tapering minaret and massive dome 
and spire, have exclaimed, "Beautiful for situation, 
indeed, and impregnable for strength is Mount Zion 
and Jerusalem!" But, as seen by modern travellers, 
it could not be compared to its magnificence in Jehos- 
haphat's day. But it was not of this temporal, mate- 
rial Jerusalem or Zion that this royal psalm was 
written, only as she was type and symbol of something 
better and more glorious. For of the Zion that was 



THE GOLDEN POT. 201 

then in the mind of the Spirit it is said, "God wilL 
establish her forever," but of the material Jerusalem 
we know her lofty towers and bulwarks are crumbled,, 
her massive walls are powdered dust, and, as Jesus 
foretold of her magnificent buildings, not one stone 
is left upon another; and her earthly children wail 
around her ruins a lamentation more sorrowful than 
their captive fathers' when they hung their harps on 
the willows by the rivers of Babylon. This is all they 
have to tell to the generations, as they come and go, 
of their once golden tipt mount of alabaster. 

But there is another Zion of which this was but a 
type and symbol. Of this one more glorious things 
are spoken as the city of God, whose battlements and 
towers will never be overthrown. This impregnable 
and imperishable spiritual Zion and temple is the 
Church of Jesus Christ, a spiritual city and kingdom, 
whose subjects and citizens are made up of all on earth 
who, in every age, are by faith united to the person 
of Jesus Christ, regenerated by His Spirit and accept 
and obey His laws and ordinances. Such, and such 
alone, are true citizens and subjects of the Church 
of Jesus Christ; that city whose walls are salvation and 
her gates praise. And of this Zion it is true that she 
is "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, 
the city of the great King," and "God will establish 
her forever." 

Some points of analogy between the Church's 
situation and that of Jerusalem and the temple. 

First. The Church, in foundation, mountain scenery 
and strength, is beautiful for situation, like Jerusalem 
and the temple. They were builded upon a rock, deep 
laid, strong and immoveable, and buttressed around 
with mountain walls and everlasting hills. No city 



202 THE GOLDEN POT. 

nor temple ever rested on such a corner-stone; and in 
the day of her prosperity, standing on the summit 
of Zion, a panorama of beautiful valley and mountain 
scenery, clothed in soft robes of azure hue, lay around 
you on every side; and Olivet and Mizpeh, Gibecn 
and Ramleh, stand like giant sentinels around the 
royal city. Says a traveller, "There appeared to be 
no way an enemy could approach save from the north- 
west, through the rugged pass of Beth-Horan — so 
Zion was called impregnable," and was so until she 
sinned away her Divine defence. Such, but far more 
beautiful in foundation, mountain scenery and strength, 
is the situation of the Church of Jesus Christ. She 
is founded upon a rock, deeper laid and more stable 
than the granite strata of earth — Jesus Christ Himself 
is her corner-stone. He said, "Upon this rock will 
I build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." She is laid in the eternal purposes 
and covenant oath of Divine truth and faithfulness, 
and these are far older than the hoary hills, and far 
more immutable than they; she is girded about with 
the mountains of Divine promises and hills of Divine 
faithfulness and the armies of omnipotence are her 
impregnable walls; her foundation and scenery and 
strength far exceed that which supported, adorned 
and guarded old Jerusalem. The Psalmist sings, 

"As round about Jerusalem the mountains stand alway, 
The Lord His folk doth compass so from henceforth and for 
aye." 

But the Lord says, "The mountains shall depart and 
the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart 
from thee nor the covenant of My peace be removed, 
saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." He that 



THE GOLDEN POT. 203 

will take his stand on the hilltop vision of the Church 
and look up toward the mountain heights of the Divine 
attributes, and out over the hills of Divine faithfulness 
and along the gleaming valleys of Divine promises, 
will see a prospect of beauty and grandeur and strength 
that has no parallel on earth. O Church of God, Thy 
beauty is perfect through the Divine comeliness put 
upon Thee, Thy defence is impregnable and Thy 
sentinels never sleep! The armies of the aliens may 
come against Thee, the heathen may rage, the kings 
of the earth may set themselves, the rulers take coun- 
sel together and the people imagine a vain thing, for 
they shall never open Thy gates nor break down Thy 
walls! "He that in heaven sits shall laugh, the Lord 
shall have them in derision." When they see the 
strength of thy battlements and bulwarks, fear shall 
take hold upon them, and being troubled, they shall 
"haste away, "for I, saith the Lord, will be a wall of 
fire round about, and the glory in the midst of her." 
Beautiful is thy situation in the covenant strength and 
grandeur of the royal Redeemer, O Church of Christ! 
We must notice one respect in which the situation 
of Christ's Church finds no analogy and far excels 
ancient Jerusalem. That city was but scantily sup- 
plied with water, and what she had was black, brackish 
and bitter. The brook Kedron, that ran along the 
valley of Hinnom on the east side, although fed by 
all the rivulets of the hills, was generally but small 
and sometimes totally dry. To remedy this evil, 
Solomon built his great pools, and Hezekiah brought 
the streams of Gihon from the south side into the 
city, and Pilate brought water from Etam, yet she was 
poorly supplied against famine or siege. But the 
Church stands at the confluence of two strong rivers 



204 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



of this world that never waste — the rivers of Divine 
providence and grace. These flow in perennial 
streams through her streets and homes, cleansing, 
refreshing and fertilizing her, insuring safety and 
health and life. No famine can ever waste her supply, 
no siege can ever shut up the fountain head, nor turn 
aside the river of God, that enriches and makes glad 
the city of the great King — the fortress that could not 
be taken because it had a secret channel to the waters 
of a great lake. So the Church has a channel to the 
exhaustless Divine supply. Beautiful for situation is 
the Church, that stands on either bank of the river 
that flows out from the throne of God and the Lamb. 

Second. Zion and Jerusalem were beautifully situ- 
ated amid fertile hills and rich valleys. Not only the 
vine-clad hills and verdant valleys that lay near the 
city poured their bounteous harvests into her, but the 
wide bottom lands of Cele-Syria, that covered the foot 
of gorgeous Lebanon and the valley of white topped 
Herman and the fountains of Jordan, all poured their 
wealth into her storehouse. However dry, barren, 
dreary and desolate this land may now appear to 
travellers, it once flowed as with milk and honey. The 
grapes of Eshcol were no myths. Ephraim was, in- 
deed, on the head of fat valleys. And the Psalmist 
was indulging in no mere poetic license of fancy when 
he sang thus: 

"With flocks the pastures covered are, 
The vales with corn are clad. 
And now they shout and sing to Thee, 
For Thou hast made them glad!" 

But more beautifully is the Church situated amid 
the hills of Divine promise and the valleys of sweet 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



205 



ordinances. No hills are clothed with such fruit and 
foliage as the hills of gracious promise, and His chil- 
dren can here gather grapes larger and sweeter than 
the grapes of Eshcol and drink wine that never ine- 
briates, but "cheereth God and man," the wine that 
"goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those who 
are asleep to speak." Man never reaped any valleys 
that yielded such a harvest as the valleys of God's 
ordinances; here they can eat angel's food, gather 
manna in the morning, at noon the corn of heaven, 
and in the evening the bread of life. Her citizens are 
fed with the finest of the wheat and eat honey out of 
the Rock. He who will come into the Church of 
Christ and feed upon the fruit of His precious promises 
and delight themselves in His ordinances of Gospel 
preaching, praise, prayer and communion, will feed the 
whole man, physical, intellectual and spiritual, and 
be nourished up unto eternal life. He will gather a 
strength that no other food of earth can supply, a 
strength for the home and the street, for labor and 
rest, for sickness and health, for day and night, for 
pleasure and pain, for life and death — a strength that 
insures victory in every conflict! He shall be satisfied 
"with the goodness of God's house," his soul shall 
oe filled as "with marrow and fatness," and "always 
flourishing." I know the men of the world sometimes 
•exclaim, "What! Do you expect to find intellect and 
soul food in the Church? No! no! We can find 
stronger and better diet in Homer and Socrates, Plato 
and Eschylus, in Virgil, Tacitus, Juvenal and Horace, 
in Huxley, Darwin and Draper," and they loathe the 
teachings of the Church of God, as the Israelites 
loathed the manna, and call it light bread and stale. 
Yet history, observation and experience prove that the 



206 THE GOLDEN POT. 

best food the children of this world ever received was 
from the Church of Jesus Christ. The food that has 
fed the best home life and society life and business 
life and political life that any land has ever known was 
gathered from the hills and valleys where stands the 
Church of Jesus Christ. The greatest warriors that 
have fought the battles and won the victories over 
human oppression and falsehood and wrong and 
misery, fed their strength on this food. The mighty 
souls who have mapped out civilized kingdoms, reared 
thrones of righteous judgment on earth and secured 
constitutional liberty, civil and religious, to men, gath- 
ered their strength from her provision. George Ban- 
croft, historian, says, "Presbyterianism is gradual 
republicanism. He who will not honor the memory 
and respect the influence of Calvin, knows little of 
the origin of American liberty." The historian Ranke 
says, "We consider Calvin as the founder of the free 
States of America." James Anthony Froude says, 
"Calvinism is the spirit that rises in revolt against 
untruth, the inflashing upon the conscience of the laws 
by which mankind are governed." 

Without this, human intellects and hearts have fed 
on the finest classics, ancient and modern, and the 
richest provision that science, philosophy, history and 
art could supply, and have grown hungry and lean and 
starved and died, but no soul ever fed by faith upon 
the hills and in the valleys of the Church's inheritance, 
in her green pastures and by her pure streams, and 
complained of leanness and want. "The Lord's my 
Shepherd; I'll not want," is the language of all the 
fold. Beautiful for situation is the Church of God, 
planted amid the promises of His truth and the or- 
dinances of His grace, "she shall grow as the lily and 
spread forth her roots as Lebanon." 



THE GOLDEN POT. 207 

Third. She is situated in a beautiful climate. The 
clear atmosphere and the deep, metallic blue of the 
Syrian sky make the twilights of Palestine long and 
of golden beauty, and her nights gorgeous. The 
snows of Lebanon and Hermon moisten her summer 
heat, and the moist winds of Arabia and breezes from 
the sea temper her winter cold, so that Jerusalem is 
placed in a beautiful climate. But far more beautiful 
the climate in which the Church of Jesus Christ is 
placed. She lies in the summer climate of Divine 
love, near the heart of God. He says of her, "This 
is my rest, here still I'll stay, for I do love it well." 
Paul says Christ "loved the Church and gave JHimself 
for it." Nothing else so fills the Redeemer's soul and 
receives so much of His care as His Church; she is 
His Bride, and He says, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth 
over the bride, so will I rejoice over thee." The 
prophet Zephaniah says, "The Lord thy God will 
rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, 
He will joy over thee with singing." O, how He 
loves the Church! He delights to feel her nestling 
under His wings and crowding up close to His heart; 
and the nearer she comes to Him, the clearer she feels 
the strong heart beat of His fervent love, and the 
more life and strength and joy she draws from that 
fountain of life and love. The face of the Sun of 
righteousness makes the light that rules her day, and 
His smile makes the warmth of her summer. She has 
her nights, but He sets them thick with starry promises 
and some of these reflect the light of His countenance 
so brightly that they become the full moon in the 
firmament of her night. And if she enters the winter 
solstice, yet at length His Spirit breathes a vernal 
breath upon her that melts her ice and dispels her cold. 



208 THE GOLDEN POT. 

And sometimes this gale has been so strong from the 
upper Eden that she has inhaled and exhaled a breath 
as fragrant as the air from a garden of sweet spices 
and myrrh. If the Church but loved her Husband and 
Lord as He loves her, and kept as close in His em- 
brace as He would held her, she would never know a 
night of gloom or a winter of cold and barrenness, 
but wear continually the robes of perennial bloom 
and fruitfulness. Yet, as it is, she will always dwell 
in the most delightful climate of this world until 
transplanted to the eternal summer land of His imme- 
diate presence and everlasting love. 

Fourth. So beautiful is the situation of the Church 
that from her position the widest, grandest and most 
varied prospect is presented that can be seen on earth. 
If you take a position on the summit of ancient Zion, 
looking westward thirty-two miles, you may see the 
water line of the Mediterranean, "the deep blue sea;" 
northward and eastward you look down on the top 
of Mount Bethel and Ramleh and Ebal, until the vision 
is arrested by the higher peaks of dewy Herman and 
snowy Lebanon. North rises Mounts Bethlehem and 
Hebron, from the great battle plain of Esdraelon, 
where Roman, Greek, Persian and Jew have battled 
for kingdoms; on every side a prospect of woodland, 
hill, valley and mountain scenery of wide, varied and 
extended grandeur is presented. But take your posi- 
tion on the Church's mount of vision, which stands in 
the shining pathway of historic and prophetic reve- 
lation, and you can have an immeasurably more dis- 
tant, wider and grander view than from any other 
point beneath the sun. Backward over all the moun- 
tain tops, hills and valleys of earth she points you 
back to the beginning, when "God created the heavens 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



209 



and the earth," and tells of the unregistered ages of 
chaos and night, and of universal light, which sprung 
from the fiat of Him who alone is light, and who 
clothed the sun therewith and appointed the moon 
and stars their places. Returning along this illumin- 
ated pathway, you can look on the moveable tent- 
homes of patriarchs and glance at many tribes of earth, 
building and gathering into great cities and forming 
vast kingdoms. Then, following one chosen people 
through Egyptian bondage and deliverance, along 
the march under pillar of cloud and fire through the 
Red Sea and the wilderness, long before Herodotus 
wrote or Homer sang, you may hear Israel's inspired 
legislator announcing the briefest, most comprehen- 
sive, wisest and purest code of law the world has ever 
yet known, and recording gems of poetry and elo- 
quence the world has never since surpassed. Then, 
looking on tabernacle and temple, altar and laver, 
sacrifice and offering, type and shadow, you pass on 
through conflicts and rebellions, victories and defeats 
and captivities, look on sorrows and death and sin, 
then look on Calvary and see Jesus, the consumma- 
tion of them all and conqueror of sin and death! 
From this high mount of vision at the cross the line 
of light brightens and widens and the glorious prospect 
broadens, but still the scene is that of a marching, 
■battling host. But now it is a more mixed multitude, 
for many from other tribes and tongues of earth have 
joined the ranks of Christ's Israel. Faith still sees 
the pillar of cloud and fire above them, but the Red 
Sea through which God's chosen have many times 
passed in the last eighteen hundred years, has been 
waves of flame instead of water on either hand, and 
their march has sometimes been through a desert land, 



210 THE GOLDEN POT. 

dry and parched with the fires of hatred and perse- 
cution; yet faith still drinks from that spiritual Rock 
and finds heavenly manna in the dew of every morn- 
ing. Through flame and flood and battle field and 
wilderness Christ's host has marched up to the present 
moment, and from the watch tower of the Church 
can be seen all the greatness of the conflict and the 
trials and triumphs and heroism and glory of the past; 
and however it may appear to the eye of human reason 
and unbelief, it has been a victory, and a glorious vic- 
tory for Christ. But, standing on the Church's mount 
of vision, take the telescope of prophetic revelation, 
and you can see a prospect more transcendently glo- 
rious far. Prophecy is but veritable history antici- 
pated; it tells what the truthful records will contain 
when written. And what a scene of glory appears to 
the eye of faith. The mountain of the Lord's house 
established above the mountains and all nations flow- 
ing into it ; peace within her walls and prosperity within 
her palaces; the knowledge of the Lord covering the 
earth as the waters do the channels of the great deep; 
the camels and dromedaries of Midian and Epha and 
Sheba gathering to her temples ; the gold and incense 
of earth given to the praise of the Lord, and the herds 
of Kedar and the flocks of Nebaioth given to the 
Lord's altars, and Egypt stretching out her hands to 
God. When violence shall be no more heard in her 
streets, nor wasting in her borders, and nothing shall 
hurt nor destroy in the holy mountain; when Zion's 
sun shall no more go down, nor the moon withdraw 
itself, but the Lord shall be her everlasting light and 
the days of her mourning shall be ended! 

We do not yet say, "There is no more sea," no more 
wilderness way before the Church, no more desert and 



THE GOLDEN POT. 21 1 

barren lands, red fields and redder fires to pass through 
— prophecy by no means tells us this. We are in- 
clined to the opinion that the Church has yet a 
troubled sea of deep waters opening before her and 
fearful fires yet to endure; but from the mount of 
vision Christ presents to the eye of faith, in the not 
very distant future, enough to support the faithful, 
toiling, battling soldier on the march. Whatever dis- 
couragements may appear to the timid or anxious 
or impatient or weary watchers, surely there are signs 
of His day drawing near. Famishing Persia is feeding 
on Christian bread and the bread of life ; starving India 
is listening to Christ and eating of Christian bounty; 
in China, Jesus is becoming better known than Con- 
fucius; in Japan, men and women are hearing the 
Gospel in their own tongue and their own schools; 
Egypt, long stripped naked and trodden upon, accepts 
Israel's deliverer; Africa is opened up from Cape 
Colony to Nyannyan, and the supposed ruin of the 
Queen of Sheba's palace, Madagascar, is a Christian 
kingdom; the missionary ship is skirting every coast 
and all the isles of the sea are waiting for the law of 
the Lord. Many millions of earth who had long sat 
in the region and shadow of death, have seen a great 
light, and in many lands sighs have changed into 
songs. Lo! along the mountain tops the light is 
breaking, grey streaks of dawn are streaming along 
the horizon, and in the morning twilight is seen the 
Gospel angel in his flight over all the earth. The 
banner of redeeming love is unfurled from the battle- 
ments of heaven in the sight of all nations ! The day 
is coming, the night shadows are fleeing away; His 
chariot wheels are heard nearer and nearer; the great 
day approaches when "all ends of the earth shall see 



212 THE GOLDEN POT, 

the salvation of our God," and the people of every land 
and the isles of the sea shall take up a song of triumph, 
and the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of 
many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, 
shall shake the earth with the victorious anthem, 
"Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" 

From the beautiful situation of the Lord's Church, 
in the path of prophetic revelation, the eye of faith 
catches beams from the day of glory to cheer the 
heart while waiting for King Solomon's royal chariot 
that is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. 
The situation of the Church of Jesus is far more 
beautiful in every way than the situation of ancient 
Zion and Jerusalem. Where else beneath the sun 
can you find a position of observation that will com- 
mand such a wide view of the past, present and. future 
condition of the human race? She is placed in a focal 
light, the rays from the most distant past and the 
beams of prophecy and promise sent out from the 
throne of eternal day meet in her dwelling place, and 
the telescope placed to her eye sweeps a more distant 
and wider field onward and upward than any other in- 
strument that ever looked into the starry firmament 
of night. This vantage ground, this beauty of situa- 
tion, Jesus' Church will continue to occupy while 
waiting for her departed King, till He comes again; 
then from before His face the corrupt world and pol- 
luted air of earth will flee away and no place be found 
for them. Then shall His glorified Church take her 
situation of peerless and unfading beauty. Then 
shall darkness and gloom and sin flee away forever, 
and the Church, rising and shaking herself from the 
dust, shaking off the bands from her neck, shall put 
on her beautiful garments and sit down within the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



213 



pearly walls of the new Jerusalem, and upon the 
mountain summit of the heavenly Zion, her situation 
of beauty and glory forever. Not only is she "beau- 
tiful for situation now, but she is the joy of the whole 
earth." 



XIII. 
Success in Life. 

"If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor" John xii: 26. 

We will suppose a young man on the threshold of 
active life, standing in his first footsteps on the arena, 
where the worth of his future years is to be shown, and 
suppose he might ask himself this question: "Can I 
take the high, unbending, pure principles of right and 
integrity which Christ taught and exemplified as the 
law of my life, and practice them with unswerving 
fidelity always and everywhere and succeed? Can I 
apply them in any and every department of business 
life and succeed? Can I carry them out in public life? 
In fidelity to them, can I do the duty of a citizen, 
a legislator or a statesman?" Many young men, I 
fear, if, in the start, they ask themselves this ques- 
tion, are inclined to answer it in the negative, and say, 
No ; it is no use; it is impossible to carry these unyield- 
ing principles of rectitude into business and political 
life. To never speak anything but the exact truth, 
to never act anything but strict honesty, to never 
practice anything but fair and open candor, that will 
never do! You will be taken advantage of and out- 
stripped by every rogue you have to compete with. 
And the idea of carrying these pure, transparent prin- 
ciples of Christ's teaching into political life, into official 
position and duties, and succeeding, is preposterous, 
it cannot be done ! What we propose to show is that 
it can be done, has been done with eminent success, 
and the highest honor. If the negative answer to this 



THE GOLDEN POT. 215 

question be true, correct, then there must be a flaw, a 
defect, either in the law of God, the precepts of Christ, 
or in the business pursuits you propose to enter. It is 
a principle which Christ Himself lays down, "By their 
fruits ye shall know them." By this you are war- 
ranted to test every law and principle laid down for 
the government of life; the teachings of Christ as 
well as of men are to be submitted to this test. Put 
the law, the principle, in practice, and if the result, 
the fruit, is not good, then the principle, the law, is 
not right, "for a good tree cannot bring forth evil 
fruit." The religion of Christ claims to lay down 
the correct principles for a life, not only in heaven, 
but especially on earth, and if the application, the 
practice of His precepts, His law on earth, in the 
service and duties of this life, bring upon a man failure 
and dishonor, then, according to his own test, they 
are false and wrong! Are they? Let us try them. 

First, what is it to serve Christ in active, every-day 
life? It is consciously, designedly, professedly to 
accept the principles of truth and uprightness Christ 
has laid down for the government of life, and to prac- 
tice them in order that He may have the honor of such 
an application of them. If you truly and faithfully 
apply Christ's doctrine in life, and the result is dis- 
honor, it must be dishonor to Him. If the result is 
honor, it must be honor to Him. And the man who 
accepts and applies the teachings of Christ in every 
relation and duty of life, that he may honor Him, 
whether he act in business or political duties, does 
serve Christ; and the promise is, such an one the 
Father will honor both in this life and that which is 
to come. Now, what are the principles and precepts 
Christ gives to practice between man and man in 



216 THE GOLDEN POT. 

every relation of life, and can they be applied with 
honor and success? But what do we mean by suc- 
cess? Is mere possession and position success? If 
a man, along with a seared or uneasy conscience, and 
empty, unloving heart and a polluted life, becomes 
possessor of a huge mound of matter, is that success? 
If, with loss of self-respect, a guilty conscience and a 
bartered soul, he can sit in a senate or on a throne, 
is that success? With every fountain of the heart's 
life and happiness dried up, every power of true 
pleasure palsied, the soul parched with continual 
thirst, and not a drop to drink, is this with any pos- 
session and position success? Call not anything that 
destroys self-respect, chokes or drains the streams 
of true life and happiness, or disables the power of true 
enjoyment, success. The principles of Christ bring a 
success that preserves all these. We are not now to 
consider the relations that must subsist between you 
individually and God in Christ, although I know that 
the purity, permanency and strength of the human 
relations flow from and are secured by this higher 
relation, but we will consider for the present only 
the lower. 

The first principle or precept we will name which 
Christ gives to practice in life is truthfulness — strict, 
invariable veracity in every relation and in regard to 
every transaction. That whatever you say in regard 
to any transaction or thing shall be the plain truth, 
according to the knowledge and conviction of your 
own soul. This principle does not require you to 
tell all you know to be true; the maxim is correct that 
"the truth is not always to be told," but only truth 
is ever to be told. There are things concerning your 
fellow-man you have no right to know, and things 



THE GOLDEN POT. 217 

relating to his business you have no business to know. 
But the principle requires that in any relations or 
transactions with your fellow-men, whatever you do- 
express shall be the plain, entire truth, and that you 
shall never hide the truth to their injury and to your 
profit by their injury. Now, cannot this principle be 
practiced with success and honor? Let us try it with 
the young man who wishes to get into business. 

James applies to a man of business for a position. 
A man of known veracity and honor testifies to the 
merchant: "Sir, you may rely with unshaken confi- 
dence on anything James says ; his truthfulness is with 
him a principle of obedience to God, His Saviour, 
and he will not swerve a jot from what he believes 
to be true, and would lose his right hand rather than 
deceive, prevaricate or lie." Do you think this re- 
commendation would be against him? Would you 
expect the business man to say, "Well, sir, I guess 
that principle cannot be applied successfully in my 
store, or shop; I think it might be better for him to 
lie a little occasionally?" You would never expect 
an intelligent business man to say anything of the 
kind. Suppose the recommendation ran in this way: 
"James is intelligent and smart in your business, and 
knows how to tell the truth, but he is no Puritan; 
if it is necessary, he is cunning enough to hide the 
truth, deceive and prevaricate; to be plain, if it is 
profitable or necessary in a bargain, he can lie." Out 
of regard to his own interest, would not the employer 
be apt to say, "No, sir, I don't want him; I want a 
man I can depend on." But if this merchant was base 
and foolish enough to think he might buy truthfulness, 
he might ask, "How high does James rate his truthful- 
ness? I may not be able to pay for it. If for ten dol- 



2l8 THE GOLDEN POT. 

lars he will lie for me, perhaps for twenty dollars he 
will lie against me!" A Quaker met a man on the 
street with a load of wood. "Will thee deliver this 
load at my house for three dollars?" "Yes, sir." The 
wood did not come. The Quaker, meeting the man 
again, says: "Why did thee not deliver me that load 
of wood?" "I met another man who offered me three 
dollars and fifty cents." "So thee values thy truth- 
fulness at fifty cents? Well, thee rates thy word at 
all it is worth." Do you suppose any business man 
wants untruthfulness toward himself in his employees? 
No, indeed. If he is base enough to want them to lie 
for him he will not have them to lie to him, thus 
admitting that truthfulness is necessary to carry on 
business. Be assured, my young friends, if any em- 
ployer winks at or tolerates prevarication, deceit or 
lying in an employee, the lying must all be in his 
interest. If he finds the lying is against him, he will 
soon dismiss you, as unsafe to him. Every intelligent 
business man into whose employ it is safe to enter, 
regards the most unbending truthfulness as the very 
highest recommendation, and if he learns this truth- 
fulness is not only an expediency, a policy, but a heart- 
principle, flowing from the high, pure mountain source 
of honor and service to the Lord, its value is above 
all price. But suppose James goes into business for 
himself, with .strict, entire truthfulness as a heart- 
principle, will that be any barrier to his securing 
customers? Suppose it can be said of him, if you 
go to that house you may depend without question 
on what the proprietor tells you. He will tell you just 
what he believes to be the character of his goods, 
what the fair price is plainly; in no matter will he 
deceive you, or prevaricate in the least. He is a man 



THE GOLDEN POT. 219 

•of entire truthfulness from principle. Do you think 
people would say, "'I don't want to trade with such a 
man; I would rather he would lie a little to me." You 
know this would not draw desirable customers; you 
know the principle of truthfulness as taught by Christ, 
and in obedience to Him, so far from being a hin- 
drance, is the highest possible commendation in secur- 
ing employment and doing business to honorable 
.success. 

Another principle Christ teaches for the guide of 
life in all relations with men is honesty, entire, un- 
bending integrity under every responsibility. This is 
so essential to truthfulness, so inseparably allied to 
it, that it is difficult to make a distinction. Yet you 
all understand what it is; a heart-principle that causes 
a man to regard every trust committed to him as most 
sacred. Mr. Colvin was entrusted with the funds of 
the company of which he was treasurer; he drew out 
ten thousand dollars and speculated in stocks, making 
twenty thousand dollars ; he replaced the ten thousand 
dollars and the company knew nothing of it. Mr. 
Haywood was treasurer of a company, took money 
from the fund, speculated, lost it all, was discovered, 
and sent to prison for embezzlement. But Mr. Col- 
vin was just as much a rascal and a thief as Mr. Hay- 
wood; neither of them had the principle of honesty, 
of integrity. But suppose it can be said of a young 
man: "You can trust him with the key of your safe, 
with your bank account, with anything you have, and 
need never fear his fidelity. His honor and integrity 
is from a principle of obedience to his God; he will 
never take money from your drawer with the good 
intention of replacing it again; he will never draw 
on your account, intending to deposit next day; he 



220 THE GOLDEN POT. 

will never make a false entry, designing to correct it 
when he is in luck; he never gambles. He is from 
principle scrupulously honest and conscientiously 
upright." Would such a character be a barrier to a 
young man seeking a business position? Would such 
a principle be an obstacle to business success? Not 
No! it is preposterous and self-evidently false to as- 
sume that the principles of strict truthfulness and 
unimpeachable honor and integrity, taught by Christ, 
are not practicable, possible and successful in business 
life. 

Another principle taught by Christ to be applied in 
all the service of life is purity, sobriety and temperance. 
Not only in not drinking intoxicants and getting 
drunk, but in all the pleasures, recreations and labor 
of life to so regard all the Divine laws of mind and 
body as to put and keep both mind and body in the 
best condition for service and enjoyment. Is this 
a barrier to success and honor? It is needless to 
answer this. Every one knows if a man has a repu- 
tation for gluttony, sensuality or intemperance, it 
would be impossible for him to secure a position or 
succeed in any honorable business. 

Then are the precepts and principles of strict, un- 
varying truthfulness, unswerving honor and fidelity, 
purity, sobriety and temperance, as taught by and 
demanded by the Lord Jesus, impossible to apply 
and practice in public life? So far from it, these very 
principles and virtues are the only foundation upon 
which a safe and permanent business prosperity and 
a beneficent public life can be built. And the want 
of these virtues practiced with unflinching fidelity has 
done more to stop spindles, clog wheels, silence forges, 
paralyze enterprise, cripple and crush business, darken 



THE GOLDEN POT. 221 

the nation's hope and palsy her power, than all mere 
material influences that operate on the globe. Young 
man, never let an intelligent, honest man hear you 
say you cannot practice the morality of Christ's re- 
ligion in business and public life; that you cannot 
he a Christian, obey Jesus Christ and succeed, for 
your own heart and conscience tell you it is untrue 
and absurd. Your hearer will immediately suspect 
your character; it is virtually saying the religion of 
Jesus Christ cannot be lived without failure and dis- 
honor; therefore, His religion is visionary and false. 
This every intelligent man knows is simply an ignorant 
slander on the wise and holy Saviour. If you could 
possibly find a man the most perfect embodiment of 
the precepts and principles taught by Christ, such a 
man, by every intelligent employer, would be the most 
acceptable as an employee, by every intelligent, up- 
right business man most acceptable as a partner, by 
an intelligent, moral community most trustingly 
patronized in business, and, if in public life,mosttrusted 
and honored by intelligent and virtuous citizens. His 
rectitude, purity, integrity and truthfulness, combined 
with talents, would insure him business success in any 
pursuit and secure him position and honor among 
his fellow-men. Some of you may be ready to say, 
I would like to see an embodiment of all the Chris- 
tian virtues run for an office in the political arena at 
the present day and see what his doom would be! 
It is not hard to tell what his fate would likely be. 
He would be smirched and smutted most shamefully 
and foully, and the whiter he was the more dirt and 
slime would be slung upon him and the fouler the 
spots would be on his whiteness, and it is quite possi- 
ble he would not be elected. But you would not vote 



222 THE GOLDEN POT. 

against him because of his virtues, would you? Would 
you vote against him because he was truthful and 
honest and pure and of unbending integrity? Oh, 
no; I reckon not. Then it was not his Christian 
virtues lost him his election, was it? Then don't 
accept the falsehood that the Christian virtues cause 
any failure and dishonor. Why, then, was he not 
voted for? Two reasons are sufficient. Some, per- 
haps a large number, believed the shameless false- 
hoods; believed that the dirt and slime spots were 
part of the man; therefore voted against the spots, 
not the virtues. Others voted against him simply 
because they were blinded, enslaved partisans, and 
he was not of their party. He would not become a 
dog to please dogs, or a wolf to please wolves, or a 
sycophant and a briber to conciliate villains and rob- 
bers. He would not barter true honor for the empty 
name of honor, yet surely his Christian virtues did 
not defeat him, for all say they v/ould not vote against 
him because he was sober, truthful and honest. 
Suppose he had been elected, would his Christian 
precepts and principles controlling his public acts be 
an obstacle to his successful public service? Would 
it make him a failure as a good and beneficent legis- 
lator, statesman or executive? Is there anything in 
these positions and duties that would be helped by 
his being untruthful, dishonest, impure and unfaithful? 
Surely not. Then all these virtues might be practiced 
there? But some young man says, what you would 
accept as Christian morality and virtue has not suc- 
ceeded eminently in business or public life, but 
chicanery, cunning and diplomacy have! Suppose 
that were true; stealing has for a time succeeded, 
therefore stealing is right and necessary; lying has 



THE GOLDEN POT. 223 

apparently succeeded, therefore lying is right and 
necessary; fraud and dishonesty have seemed to pros- 
per, therefore fraud and dishonesty are right and 
necessary. Would you accept such logic and such 
a standard of morality? You must if you insist that 
the standard of uprightness brings failure and dis- 
honor, for there is no middle standard, there are only 
degrees of distance from the upright. But we do 
most confidently deny that the strictest adherence 
to Christian principles has not been successful, both 
in business and political life. Leave out stock- 
jobbing, financial and commercial gambling schemes, 
and the whisky business, and confine examination 
to legitimate, honorable business, and the men most 
eminent in success, who have stood at the head of 
great enterprises, were successful and were so pro- 
moted and trusted because of their strength in at least 
some of these Christian virtues. And many of the 
most distinguished in State service attained their 
position and honor by firm adherence to at least one 
or more of the Christian virtues. We do not say they 
possessed all the Christian principles, that they were 
perfect embodiments of the law of Christ, but we say 
it was their virtues of Christ-origin that gave them 
success, eminence, honor and earthly immortality. 
In one biography of A. T. Stewart it is said, if any 
employee was known to misrepresent any piece of 
goods in the establishment or prevaricate to a cus- 
tomer, he was summarily dismissed. Whatever virtues 
Stewart lacked, it is admitted by those who knew him 
best that his colossal fortune was built on business 
truthfulness and honesty. Andrew V. Stout, Presi- 
dent of the Shoe and Leather Bank, New York, was 
once impoverished by generosity in endorsing for 



J224 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



others, but he came out of the trial without a stain 
upon his reputation; amassed great wealth and became 
.as distinguished for commercial integrity as for piety 
and liberality. Nathaniel Ripley Cobb, of Boston, 
jiever accumulated above fifty thousand, because all 
above that sum he gave away, and during his life time 
gave away more than five times his accumulated wealth, 
lived and died honored for piety, truthfulness and 
integrity. The Harper Brothers, of New York, have 
done a prosperous business for more than fifty years 
by the strictest adherence to Christian principles. 
Were not R. L. Stuart and William E. Dodge success- 
ful? Is there any suspicion that they departed from 
Christian integrity? Did time permit, we might refer 
to George Peabody, Edward Colston, Peter Cooper, 
and others too numerous to mention. I repeat, young 
man, never let an intelligent and honorable man hear 
you say you cannot practice Christian integrity in 
business if you would not degrade your reputation. 
And when, in political life, one single Christian prin- 
ciple, tenaciously held and lived, has lifted more men 
into worthy success, eminence and enduring honor 
than ever did the devil's diplomacy. Charles Sumner 
did not by any means embody all Christian principles, 
but he did hold, even to martyrdom, one Christ-taught 
principle; that was, unswerving fidelity to his con- 
victions of the true and the right toward his fellow- 
men. Not classical scholarship or Grecian eloquence, 
but truthful, fearless fidelity to justice and human 
freedom wove the garland of earthly immortality for 
the head of Charles Sumner. Daniel Webster's forty 
years of peerless statesmanship, regal intellectual 
•attainments and treasures, and masterful, triumphant 
oratory, were all sadly tarnished by one single act 



THE GOLDEN POT. 225 

against the principle of Divine justice and human right. 

"The light withdrawn 
Which once he wore! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 
Forevermore!" 

Neither learning, eloquence, wealth nor craft car- 
ried Abraham Lincoln into the highest seat in the 
Republic, but the pronomen of "honest," better than 
knighthood or any title of nobility, "honest Abraham!" 
His simple, unswerving integrity and transparent 
purity of purpose made the luminous glory of his 
life. The success of Garfield was unquestioned, yet the 
slime of falsehood and fraud never stained his career 
from the tow-path to the presidency, and his death-bed 
l)y the sea. He lived and died a Christian. To these 
few specimen personages we might add the unnum- 
bered names of the great, who have been the good 
and the great of earth only by the power of one or 
more of the Christ-taught principles, maintained and 
exemplified, which gave distinction and honor to 
their names and memory. 

And the principles of a Christian life are not im- 
practicable or incompatible even in the life of a soldier. 
Although war seems in every phase so diametrically 
•opposite in spirit to Christianity, William of Nassau, 
Prince of Orange, carried with distinguishing pre- 
eminence truthfulness and honor through the temp- 
tations of princely wealth, through defeat, misfortune 
and comparative poverty, and carried Christian princi- 
ples through almost a life-time of relentless, desolating 
warfare, carried them firmly to his death-bed of 
assassination and martyrdom. General Washington, 
■Colonel Gardiner, General Havelock and General 



226 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Oliver O. Howard, were not more distinguished for 
soldierly bearing and bravery than for piety and 
Christian integrity. 

My young friends, there is no place on earth where 
God would have you employ the powers He has given 
you that the principles of His Word cannot be prac- 
ticed with the best hope of success and honor. Of 
Christian truth and purity the Lord says: "Exalt her 
and she will promote thee, she shall bring thee to 
honor when thou dost embrace her. She shall give 
thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory 
shall she deliver to thee." God declares, "Them that 
honor Me I will honor." 

This service of Christ has some specific advantages 
that ought to be noticed. First, he who thus serves 
Christ has but one master. He who tries to please 
himself has a hard master and always fails, but he who 
seeks success and honor by pleasing and placating 
the world serves a hundred masters and pleases none, 
and must turn and twist and wriggle and distort and 
torture his life through most tortuous ways and be- 
come a shrinking coward and slave. But he who 
serves Christ serves but one Master, and He supreme. 
Second. He serves an easy and gracious Master. I 
do not mean He is lenient and easy to self-will and 
willful disobedience. He must have the heart and 
the surrendered will, but having these He is not hard 
and implacable, but most gracious to infirmities, ig- 
norance, faults and the failures of love. When the 
intention is good and sincere, but the means mistaken 
and the end an error, He graciously takes the will for 
the deed and pities our frailties. But he who serves 
the world must remember it makes no provision for 
mistakes nor mercy for failures. Napoleon told his 



THE GOLDEN POT. 227 

officers that "a blunder was worse than a crime." 
This expresses not the mind of Christ, but the spirit 
of the world's mastery. Third. He who serves Christ 
has a straightforward and plainly expressed law of 
life. There is nothing written in human language 
so plain and easy of application as the life-governing 
principles of God's law; so it is literally true "a way- 
faring man, though a fool, need not err therein." But 
he must be a hard and diligent student who would 
ever learn the world's many maxims so as to success- 
fully apply them, or be able to follow the devil's 
diplomacy, that has more windings than the Egyp- 
tian labyrinth. These are considerations of great 
moment in the making of your life, one supreme mas- 
ter to serve and an easy and gracious master, and a 
plain, straight, uniform law to obey. Now, my young 
friends, you have before you these two places of 
activity, business and political or public life. Into 
both you must enter more or less largely and be more 
or less prominent and active. You must either be a 
serving laborer, a hewer of wood and a drawer of 
water, or enter agricultural, commercial or mechanical 
pursuits, or public or professional life, unless you 
intend to be a tramp, a vagabond, a gambler, or a 
cracksman; in that case you need no guiding principle. 
But if you are to be men and citizens, you must 
have some business pursuit, some life employment. 
And it is your privilege and right, nay, I will say, your 
duty, to apply your powers and talents energetically 
and honorably to acquire wealth and power. The 
possession of wealth, so far from being a sin or an evil, 
has often been the gift of God to men, through the 
hand of industry, genius, business tact, skill and talent, 
and God requires and commends "the hand of the 



228 THE GOLDEN POT. 

diligent, that maketh rich." But its possession is a 
trust, a stewardship, a power for the honor of God in 
the hands of the possessor, in promoting the welfare 
of humanity. God gave this gift and power to Abra- 
ham, to Job, to Solomon, and to many others. To 
seek this power to be used for God and man is not 
only right, but a duty. Yet in whatever channel you 
seek it, let it be therein the service of Christ. Take 
the principles of righteousness and integrity He has 
given you, and maintain them with unswerving fidelity. 
Apply them in your transactions and commercial rela- 
tions with men, in all the trials and temptations, in 
all the successes and reverses of business life. Prac- 
tice them with the strictest faithfulness and conscien- 
tiousness, and fear no failure. If you fail because of 
fidelity to Christ's teachings, the failure and dishonor 
are His, not yours, and your success is the vindication 
of His precepts and honor, and the promise is, His 
Father will honor you. Never for a moment entertain 
the thought of abandoning, or even relaxing the rigor 
of Christ-taught principles for an apparent present 
advantage. The issue will prove your safety is in 
adhering to them, and you will never lose by handling 
them; your success comes from God, your honor is in 
His hand, therefore the coronation of faithfulness shall 
never fail. 

Another field in which you should be an interested 
actor, young man, is that of politics. You may, if 
you please, call it the field of patriotism. It is not 
only your right and privilege to act in this field, 
but your patriotic and Christian duty. You can 
here serve Christ; apply, maintain and exemplify 
His principles of truth and righteousness. I know 
it is said politics is nothing but a partisan strife, a 



THE GOLDEN POT. 229 

scene of pot-house brawls, a broker's office, where 
money is exchanged for voters; its ends are attained 
only by wire pulling, chicanery, fraud and strife. 
And to go to Harrisburg or Washington City is 
thought to be extremely perilous to morals, scarcely 
less dangerous than the capital of his Satanic majesty! 
One is sometimes heard to exclaim, Politics is an un- 
clean thing, from which one must separate, scarcely 
touch at all if he hopes to be a Christian; with which 
religion cannot be mixed in the smallest quantity! 
Is this true? Far from it. This is not politics at all; 
it is greedy gambling, selfish, Satanic partisanism, that 
every patriot and Christian should scorn. Webster 
gives the correct definition of politics; he says, "It is 
the science of government, that part of ethics or moral 
principles which relates to the regulation or govern- 
ment of a State, for the preservation of its safety, 
peace and prosperity." It is to devise, establish and 
execute wise and righteous measures for the govern- 
ment of men, to regulate and guide the economy of 
a nation; to suppress and punish crime, to encourage 
and reward virtue, to guard and defend all the benevo- 
lent interests of humanity, to exterminate tyranny and 
secure civil and religious liberty to man. This is the 
business of politics, a profession in which the highest 
morality can be nurtured and the purest principles 
of Christian life should enter; a work only second in 
importance to the ministry of reconciliation. You 
may organize your "Hundred" committees, pass the 
Bullitt bill, cry "Reform" and try every other device, 
there will be no reform, either in your municipal or 
national government, until patriotic and Christian men 
are willing to learn and do their duty as citizens of 
a republic. When I say it is your duty to be interested 



230 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



and active in political service, I do not mean it is your 
duty to seek some official position; it is not the duty 
of every citizen, even in the United States, to have 
an office; but I do mean you should be deeply inter- 
ested in every movement or policy that touches the 
rights of humanity, or in any way effects the financial, 
commercial, educational or moral character, prosperity 
or peace of your State, or the nation. You ought to 
so inform yourself in political science, economy, his- 
tory and the principles of administration that you 
could intelligently judge men and measures at some- 
thing like their true worth. Then let your ballot 
execute an honest, intelligent freeman's will. Use 
this power of a freeman as a valued right — a right 
that cost your ancestry many a perilous revolution, 
much bloodshed and martyrdom. By the possession 
of this power you become to a certain degree a trustee 
of the public welfare. 

If by your neglect to rightly use this power cor- 
rupt and designing men attain to office, and through 
want of proper legislation or the enactment of un- 
just and hurtful measures, the State or national peace 
is destroyed or imperilled, the guilt and crime is, in a 
large measure, yours. That young man is unworthy 
of citizenship in this Republic who knows nothing 
about and cares nothing for political affairs. The 
man who says he is too pure to take part in politics 
is only too pure to serve God and man, or too much 
of a selfish simpleton to be fit to serve either. For 
another reason, young men, you should with the 
purest Christian patriotism take a deep interest in 
political affairs — because soon you will come into all 
the privileges, blessings, powers and honors of this 
unexampled republic as your inheritance. An in- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 231 

heritance of constitutional liberty and all the rights 
and powers of legal freedom; an inheritance of educa- 
tional opportunities to give the best development to 
the mind and heart of millions; an inheritance of se- 
cured life, property, and homes; an inheritance of 
fruitful fields, mines of wealth, navigable rivers, free 
lakes and seas, unsurpassed by any people on earth; 
an inheritance of religious liberty that leaves the 
conscience and heart constrained by no power but 
the love of God. This is a valuable inheritance if 
measured by what it cost your fathers and fore-fathers. 
On the other side the seas, they dared the rack, the 
stake, the gibbet and scaffold and paid uncounted 
treasure and life for your legacy. On this side your 
forefathers laid down as a price all the fruits of years 
of hard toil, endured pinching poverty, stained the 
snow with bleeding, freezing, almost naked feet on 
the march, and left their bones along all the rivers 
and mountains of your eastern and southern land. 
Again, when your inheritance of freedom's best bless- 
ings were in peril, your brothers and fathers weighed 
in the balance as a price the fruits of their toil and 
gave the young, the strong, the bravest and best of 
their sons to the sacrifice, whose bodies in places 
known and unknown, buried and unburied, make hal- 
lowed ground along almost every southern stream 
and mountain side. They gave billions of wealth and 
hundreds of thousands of human lives that your in- 
heritance might not be parceled out among a succes- 
sion of petty despots. Now, is it not a duty in which 
you can serve God and humanity to care that corrupt 
and designing trustees do not mortgage and squander 
your inheritance of freedom's privileges, blessings, 
rights and powers, and bankrupt your fathers' estate? 



232 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



Do you not care if they thrust out of your system of 
education the only standard of morals that can teach 
your citizens to know and love truthfulness, honesty 
and integrity, the only instruction that teaches man 
to love his Maker and his fellow-men, the only truth 
that ever has given to the human heart the nerve and 
courage to maintain and defend the rights of God and 
the freedom of man? Take these life-principles of 
Christianity and virtue out of your educational system, 
and out of your administrative policy, and you will 
leave them as barren and hollow as English Deism, 
German infidelity, or French atheism, and will strip 
your country as barren of glory as the rocks of old 
Tyre when fishermen spread their nets there to dry. 
Young men, do your duty as citizens, but do not 
for one moment suppose that lying, dishonesty or 
craft is right or needful here. These are the things 
that are putting your inheritance in peril to-day. 
Take the principles of integrity Christ taught, adhere 
to them unflinchingly; you will best serve your coun- 
try in thus serving Christ and secure your own honor. 
It may become your duty to accept public trust and 
serve God and your country in public position. I 
believe God as really calls men to civil as to ecclesias- 
tical office. But be sure to take Christ-taught princi- 
ples of purity and honor into these duties, if you 
would be the best servants of God and your fellow- 
men. You need not beg and scheme for the call. 
If it is of God, it will come through your fitness for 
the position, and the demand of your country for your 
abilities and service. But to gain position never 
cringe, or fawn, or bend from the right or true. Never 
become a villain to get perpetuity, peace and pros- 
perity, or such an inheritance for yourselves and pos- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 233, 

terity. Suppose a young man was heir to a vast and 
valuable estate, and was told the trustees are impov- 
erishing the soil by an exhaustive and ruinous tillage; 
are permitting the buildings to fall into decay; are 
plastering the estate all over with mortgages, and 
squandering the income, so by the time you come into 
possession it will be utterly bankrupt, what would you. 
think to hear the young man say, "I don't care; I 
take no interest in these things; let them attend to 
that!" And should you not care whether to serve 
villains, such dishonor is a poor reward. If purity, 
integrity and honor will not be accepted, then accept 
the unmeasured honor of defeat. Your country itself 
is better served in the defeat of virtue than in the 
promotion of fraud and vice and your own soul's 
purity. Life and honor are worth more than all the 
empurpled inheritance of this great republic. Accept 
no inauguration unless it be for ability, virtue and. 
worth. Thus serve Christ by adhering to His teach- 
ings and spirit, and the Father will honor you. If 
God confers no other honor in this world on such 
a servant, He will confer the honor of deserved self- 
respect, and this is a high and enjoyable honor. He 
who has lost his self-respect and must despise and 
be ashamed of himself, is a pitiable and miserable 
wretch. He who, by sycophancy, cunning, fraud and 
dishonor, has succeeded, as he calls it, however great 
the wealth he may have gathered, or however eminent 
the station he may occupy, can have neither enjoy- 
ment, peace nor honor. But he who, in fidelity to 
Christ-like integrity and truth, has served, though he- 
may be left to sit in obscurity, unrewarded of men, 
God will garland his soul with the honor of conscious 
self-respect and rectitude, which is a regal coronet, 



^34 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



more glorious and made of more precious stuff than 
any glittering crown on the brow of kings. We have 
said nothing of the crown of life and glory beyond 
which is sure to every one who serves the Saviour. 
But the words of Christ are literally true in this life, 
"If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor." 
Then 

"Go forth in the battle of life, young man, 

Go while it is called to-day, 
For the years go out and the years come in, 
Regardless of those who may lose or win, 

Of those who may work or play. 

"Temptations will wait by the way, young man; 

Temptations without and within, 
And spirits of evil in robes as fair 
As the holiest angels in heaven wear, 

Will lure you to deadly sin. 

"Then put on the armor of God, young man, 
In the beautiful days of youth, 
Put on the helmet, the breast-plate and shield, 
And the sword the feeblest arm may wield 
In the cause of Right and Truth. 

"And go to the battle of life, young man, 

With the peace of the Gospel shod, 
And before high heaven do the best you can 
For the great reward, for the good of man, 
'For the kingdom and crown of God.' " 

"For the kingdom and crown of God," young man, 
and your own crown will not be wanting in the great 
Coronation Day. 



XIV. 
"The Great Carpenter." 

"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Alary ?" Mark vi: 3. 

The word carpenter here used is from the Greek, 
tckton, sometimes translated builder or one working 
in wood, stone or iron, an artisan. Therefore, the 
opinion of Justin Martyr that He was employed chiefly 
in making yokes and plows, gets no authority from 
this word tekton. He might have been a brasier, 
a stone cutter, or a carpenter builder. The word cer- 
tainly means that He was a toiler at some kind of 
handicraft. This His enemies tried to make a re- 
proach, as it is still made against toilers by idleness 
and worthless pride. Also, this fact that His mother 
was simply Mary — not Queen Mary, Lady Mary or 
Goddess Mary, but just plain Mary — and that He 
was just a plain man, without nobility of name or 
position. So He was, and continues to be, a man — 
the noblest work of God in creation, to make a man, 
especially such a man as the first Adam, and such a 
man as Jesus, the second Adam. But the context 
shows clearly that this people thought He assumed 
to be, if He did not positively claim to be, something 
above a plain, ordinary man, claiming to be something 
besides a man! For nearly thirty years they had seen 
Him, perhaps daily, laboring at His business, whatever 
it was, just as other men, nothing different, showing 
no unusual power or wisdom; nothing indicating that 
He was any more than others, His fellow-townsmen 
or workmen. But now, suddenly, this man, who 



236 THE GOLDEN POT. 

never went to school, who had no position among 
scholars, who never learned anything from our rabbis, 
presumes to interpret our ancient and profound oracles 
and prophets with an authority no other man ever 
did, and to claim them for His own, and to apply them 
to Himself, and to show a wisdom and miraculous 
power that is amazing. What does it mean? Is He 
more than a carpenter, more than a man? Yes, my 
hearers, they rightly interpreted His words and actions 
as claiming that He was a Divine man. 

As I am going to talk to you to-day of Him as a 
man chiefly, I want first to assure you that I believe 
Him to be, and trust and adore Him, as a Divine 
man, "very God of very God!" Look at this fact: 
His coming, and condition, and position, and charac- 
ter, and life, and sufferings, and death, and resurrec- 
tion, were all portrayed by Moses, the Psalmist and 
prophets as clearly and accurately as any picture of 
the photographic art of the present day could present 
a human face, and no other man, from Adam down to 
His day, met the demands of that picture; but when 
He came, men were constrained to say, "This is the 
original of the foretold Messiah portrayed by the He- 
brew prophets and seers," and none, from His day down 
to the present, has ever been recognized as answering 
the original of the Lawgiver and Psalmist and pro- 
phets' picture. For two thousand years, His laws, 
precepts and wisdom have surpassed the wisdom of 
the wisest men of earth, and His life has been admitted 
to be better than the best, the perfect life; and His 
power over the hearts and lives of the human race has 
excelled that of all sages, philosophers, teachers and 
reformers. This Carpenter of Nazareth, who was the 
disciple of no earthly teacher, a scholar of no school 



THE GOLDEN POT. 237 

of the learned, is the only teacher that speaks with 
unquestioned authority among the largest minds and 
most learned scholars of the race. Yes, my hearers, 
the proof that He is a Divine Man is in every age 
growing clearer and clearer, like the daylight from 
dawn to meridian splendor. Therefore, whatever may 
be said to-day of His actual, genuine manhood, never 
forget that He is a Divine man. But some object 
that this very fact unfits Him to be a teaching exam- 
ple to ordinary men, because His Divine nature makes 
Him so extraordinary. I admit we cannot explain or 
comprehend how or to what degree the Divine nature 
affected the human nature, yet from God's Word and 
His life we can show that the Divine did not so affect 
His human nature as to make Him any more or less 
than man as man. That He had the infirmities and 
limitations of man, in hunger and weariness and sleep, 
and limited human knowledge and growth; that He 
was subjected to all the sorrows, trials and temptations 
of human life ; a man like other men, only a man with- 
out sin, a full, perfect man, measured by the perfect 
Divine law of life; a standard, example man for the 
race. Merely as a man, leaving out of consideration 
anything more Divine than is found in any other or- 
dinary men, He was physically, intellectually, morally 
and spiritually the grandest man of the race. In vi- 
rility, fearless courage, firmness, self-control and all 
that goes into the make-up of true, strong manhood, 
He was the manliest man that ever lived on earth, the 
only true model for men. Paul calls Him an example. 
Himself says: "Follow Me; do as I have done," thus 
claiming to be an example. Some may ask, Did 
Jesus, this carpenter, ever know what it was to be 
out of work, to hunt in vain for employment, to have 



238 THE GOLDEN POT. 

nothing to boil the pot with and nothing to put in 
the pot to boil? Did this Carpenter ever endure a 
hard, fault-finding taskmaster? Did He ever feel 
as if every bone and muscle in back and limbs were 
aching and slowly breaking under the burden; and, 
as night fell, no thanks or recognition for the toil and 
service, but grumbling, and perhaps curses, and charge 
of work ill-done, and pay withheld, and wages reduced? 
Did this Carpenter of Nazareth ever know the temp- 
tation to strike against robbery and wrong? Did this 
Carpenter ever endure the sneer and contempt of 
worthless wealth, and pride and power? If I answer, 
Yes, you may say, Give us the instance, the time and 
place. This I cannot do, but I can do better. The 
inspired apostle says: "He was tempted in all points 
as we are." What does this mean? Surely nothing 
less than it literally declares, "All points" — that there 
is no condition or temptation He has not felt. He 
tells us that He was an hungered forty days and forty 
nights, then tempted to get bread in a way dishonoring 
to God. That pride, avarice and ambition assaulted 
Him, and that He was offered the world's greatest 
bribes of wealth and power. That He was urged to 
distrust and tempt God by putting Himself in needless 
peril, and casting Himself down to sure death. Thus 
He was tried, just as many a toiler has since been 
tempted, to get bread in a God-dishonoring way; just 
as many a toiler has been tempted by the clamors of 
ambition, and avarice, and the world's bribes of wealth 
and place and power. Just as many a toiler since, in 
his desperation, under want and wrong, has been 
tempted to distrust God and hurl himself over a preci- 
pice, that only insured death — by some form of 
suicide to show his distrust of God and thrust himself 



THE GOLDEN POT. 239 

unbidden into His presence. Jesus, the Carpenter, 
endured and overcame all these temptations for the 
sake of those who, like Himself, are the toilers and 
tempted on the earth, that He might succor those 
who are afflicted. Remember, He was poorer than 
the birds of the air, or the foxes of the hills, that He 
had not where to lay His head, and at last His very- 
grave was borrowed. Never was a poorer toiler on earth 
than He. Sometimes He must sit hungry by the way- 
side, and wait for the very bread and water of charity. 
At times it seemed as if He had no friends beneath 
the heavens; He felt the proud world's scorn and 
sneer and contempt. He says they point the finger, 
shoot out the lip, and cry, "Aha! aha!" There is not a 
hard place of the toiler on earth that Jesus has not 
been there, nor is there a lowly place of trial and 
service that Jesus has not filled and crowned with 
honor. Oh, ye burdened toilers of earth, however 
hard your place, your temptations and trials, if you 
would find a compassionate heart, and a helping hand, 
go and tell your need into the ear of the crowned 
Carpenter, who now sits enthroned, the sovereign 
of the universe. He will not refuse to hear nor fail 
to comfort, help and deliver. So compassionate, He 
knows all your trials and is touched with a feeling 
of sympathy for all your infirmities. When you feel 
or fear that power and capital are wronging and op- 
pressing labor; that wealth and pride are separating 
from you with a sneer, and standing far off from you, 
because you are grimy with toil ; if you feel or fear that 
greed of gain is trying to barter with your flesh and 
life-blood, and you are tempted to do the avenging 
and right the wrong by your own wisdom and power 
— pause, I pray you, and remember that you have a 



240 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



brother workman on the throne, just and almighty. 
Go to Him in such a crisis for wisdom to guide you, 
for grace to uphold you and for love and power to 
deliver you. He says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will 
repay." If there is in our country a conflict and crash 
between labor and capital, between wealth and poverty, 
power and weakness, if a wrong and a just complaint, 
as there seems to be, that wrong will never be righted 
and reconciliation effected, and righteous prosperity 
secured, except through the wisdom and grace of the 
Carpenter of Nazareth. Appeal to Him, trust Him. 
By your own wisdom and efforts alone you will only 
kindle an earthly hell and dig your own and other 
graves. By His wisdom, truth and grace, darkness 
can be turned into light, war into peace, oppression 
into freedom, and hell into heaven. Nowhere is there 
found on earth such wise, helpful sympathy with 
earthly toil and trial as in Jesus of Nazareth, His real 
Church and followers. The charge has been widely 
sown over this land, especially this last year, that the 
Church and ministry caters to wealth and courts and 
coddles power, and has little or no sympathy and 
help for burdened, toiling humanity. The charge has 
been made by those who ought to know, and do know, 
it is a calumny. We admit there are those called after 
the name of this Carpenter, and there are organizations 
called churches, that have in them more greed, pride 
and haughty self-righteousness than wisdom or grace, 
and are never likely to see heaven below, or enter 
"heaven above. But take Christ and His true followers, 
united into a kingdom and Church, and they have 
done more than everything else to revive and support 
and deliver oppressed humanity. "Come unto Me 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 



THE GOLDEN POT. 241 

you rest," is the promise of the Divine Carpenter. 
We have never yet been shown the asylums, and 
hospitals, and benevolent institutions that atheism 
and infidelity has founded, endowed and operated, 
and never will be. But asylums for the insane, blind, 
deaf and dumb, and hospitals for the sick and crippled, 
and infirmaries for the poor, are wholly the fruits and 
building of the Carpenter of Nazareth, and almost 
exclusively supported and operated by His followers. 
Show us the organizations that are formed and fur- 
nished by the godless and infidels to care for the un- 
employed and poor of your city this winter. They 
can neither form or operate such, and leave out the 
churches, for Christians not only take care of their 
own poor, but also pay seven-eighths of the cost of 
those outside. Why? Because they have been with 
the Carpenter and caught some measure of His spirit. 
Who are to-day visiting prisons and hospitals, and 
narrow, filthy alleys of great cities, the miserable 
abodes of poverty and wretchedness, supplying the 
hungry with food, the naked with clothing, and send- 
ing the physician and medicine to the sick? Are these 
Christless, unbelieving men and women? You know 
the very opposite of this is the truth, that they are 
the true followers of this Carpenter of Nazareth. 
Never since the world began has so much been done 
by beneficent laws, benevolent institutions and per- 
sonal effort to comfort and relieve and help the wage- 
earner, and to care for the poor and unemployed as 
at the present day, and this is almost entirely the work 
of the Church and organizations controlled by Chris- 
tian men and women. And this is so because the 
spirit of the great Carpenter has been instilled into 
human hearts and pervaded Christian and civilized 
society. 



242 THE GOLDEN POT. 

We admit the Church has not yet reached that mea- 
sure of sympathy and helpfulness in the earthly life 
she should; that she is not as good as her Head, or 
equal to the demands of her builder; that He yet 
remains the only all-wise, all-helpful spmpathizer with 
His fellow-toilers. Yet His Church, however imper- 
fectly she represents Him, is yet the best friend the 
burdened and toiling have visible on earth. Ye car- 
penters, artisans, mechanics, toilers at every handi- 
craft, this Carpenter teaches you, both by precept and 
example, that labor is honorable; He has put a crown 
on every honorable employment. Only idleness and 
the pride or beggary of idleness, is a disgrace. Labor 
was never a curse; it was the holy and blessed condi- 
tion of Eden. It is to-day the most healthful tonic 
to the physical and the intellectual man, nourishing, 
vitalizing and compacting brain and brawn. The 
Gladstones, the Bismarcks, Moltkes, the Everetts and 
Palmers, of four score and more, are mighty, but wise 
workers. I have reason to be grateful for years of 
labor on the farm, in the open fields, that gave me 
the vigor of nerve and muscles, that have endured 
the toil of so many years, and yet remain strong. Re- 
joice in your ability to labor; it has the honor of 
Divine appointment and Divine example, that a life 
of toil may be the best Christian life. Was not His? 
It can never be so hard, so tired, so burdened, that it 
may not be a life of faith, and hope, and prayer, and 
love, and integrity. He alone lived a perfect life, 
and He lived it amid toil, privation, wrong and suffer- 
ing; and many of His followers have lived noble, 
upright, pious lives, under sore toil and trial. This 
Carpenter teaches you by precept and example that 
a life of toil may be the happiest and most honored 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



243 



life on earth. I am sure that Jesus, in all His toil 
and privations and trials and sorrows, had more pure 
and unalloyed happiness than was ever experienced 
in thirty-three years on earth. Everything within 
Him and about Him, except sin, ministered to His 
happiness, because of His purity and tranquility of 
soul, His communion with His God in His person, 
and truth and creation, and His intercourse of love 
with His fellow-men, and His great and awful work, 
which His faith said would succeed; He could not but 
have infinite sources of happiness because He was 
holy. And never was life lifted into such beauty, 
grandeur and glory as by Him. He crowned life and 
life's labors with a garland of fragrance and bloom 
that will never fail or fade. He has taught us that 
out of the lowliest and hardest positions of earth we 
may harvest holiness and happiness, and may reach 
honor, the highest on earth and high in heaven, the 
royalty of Divine likeness and service. 

This Carpenter of Nazareth has built, and He only 
•can teach you to build, the grandest temple that ever 
adorned the earth — the temple of character and life. 
Let us glance at a few of the temples He has built 
in centuries past — glorious characters, the heroic con- 
querors and defenders of human freedom, such as 
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, William of Nassau, 
Prince of Orange, the Cromwells, the Sidneys, the 
Washingtons, the Lincolns, these were His building. 
Among the heroes of religious freedom and defenders 
of the truth, the Luthers, Calvins, Zwingles, Knoxes, 
Wesleys and Edwards, were His building. Among 
the learned and philanthropic, the Newtons, Bacons, 
Lockes, Hamiltons, and McCoshes, these are of His 
building. Of great orators of Gospel grace, the 



244 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



Chrysostoms, the Chalmers, the Masons and the 
Spurgeons are of His building. Of philanthropists, 
the Howards, the Wilberforces, the Browns, and such 
as Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, are of His 
building. As Paul says, "What shall I say more? 
time would fail me to tell;" they could be enumerated 
by myriads. These are but a few samples of the 
temples He has built on the earth that will never 
crumble or perish. All the strongest, grandest, most 
beautiful and best of earth are of His building. O, 
ye carpenters and builders, if you would build for 
yourselves the most durable, beautiful and perfect 
temple of life, He only can teach you how. As Peter 
says, it must be built of "lively" or "living stones." 
Be taught by Him to lay stone upon stone of firm, 
strong character; to build into it a faith and hope that 
nothing can move or shake; build into it a truth and 
integrity that none can question; learn of Him to 
let light into it that will never grow dark, and set in 
it virtues more precious and beautiful than the rarest 
jewels, and on it a pinnacle that, unlike the Tower of 
Babel, will reach up to the highest heaven. And when 
the top stone is laid, let it be with shoutings of "Grace, 
grace unto it." For you will assuredly acknowledge 
that the whole temple, from foundation stone to the 
highest pinnacle point, is the building of the Car- 
penter of Nazareth. I beseech you, accept His grace 
and truth and love, follow His teachings as the great 
Builder, and imitate His example, and you will soon 
join in the toilers' hymn: 
"O Builder Divine, the daylight is gone, 
My workshop is closed, my thoughts are now free, 
'Ihe noise of earth's traffic is hushed in the streets, 
And my heart and my voice I lift unto Thee. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 245 

""I sing of the glory from which Thou didst come 
To live in a cottage and work for Thy bread. 

I sing of the glory which Thou didst conceal 
In a carpenter's worth, 'neath a carpenter's shed. 

"O Builder Divine, now raised to Thy throne, 

Reveal unto me Thy wonderful plan 
For building an earthly, yet heavenly life, 

For growing in favor with God and with man. 

"I, too, am a toiler, unheeded, unknown, 

I have a spirit which longs to be free. 
O, teach me to work and patiently wait, 

While knowing my kinship with God and with Thee." 

O, my hearers, for yourselves, each one of you, 
accept this Carpenter of Nazareth for your Builder, 
your Divine Friend and Redeemer. 



XV. 
Proof of Manhood. 

" Show thyself a man," I Kings ii: 12. 

He is not always a man who is such in appearance. 
My text clearly implies that manhood is something- 
to be shown, to be proved. There are those who 
claim the title who cannot produce the credentials. 
When the prophet Jeremiah was commanded to search 
Jerusalem "if he could find a man," we may suppose 
they were scarce in that sacred city. When the Greek 
philosopher, Diogenes, searched Athens with a candle 
to find a man, he doubtless thought such were scarce 
in that ancient city. Now, I do not suppose for a 
moment the United States are so impoverished of 
men as Jerusalem or Athens, but it is certain the 
nation and the Church would be richer, purer, 
stronger, if she had many more citizens and members, 
worthy of being called men in the broadest, fullest 
sense of the name. For the continued freedom, peace, 
perpetuity and honor of the State and the Church, 
they need "pure-hearted men, firm, true and strong." 
What are the evidences of true manhood? What 
is it proves any creature to be such a being as that 
into which the Creator breathed the breath of life, 
made a living soul, placed in paradise and called a 
man? An animal that walks upright on two legs, 
feeds himself with his fore-paws, utters bad language, 
wears a beard and smokes, may describe Darwin's 
original; but not the being God created and sceptered 
in Eden. No creature can prove itself a man simply 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



247 



by eating big dinners, taking big naps, and filling 
up the spaces with other animal delights — that species 
which, long ago, the devils scared into the sea could 
excel in all these. The fact that a creature can pro- 
duce a silky mustache and a flowing beard is no proof, 
for fungi and moss can grow on rotten logs and beard 
on an ape. The fact that a creature hangs on his 
figure the richest clothing, fitted artistically, is no 
proof; a tailor's dummy or a "lay figure" in a shop 
window may have all these. The fact that a creature 
can lounge in an office, promenade attractively the 
streets, play the gallant in a ball room or parlor, and 
amuse a lady's lap-dog, does not prove he is a man. 
Many biped creatures who hang around groceries 
and saloon doors, roost on vacant lots, or along the 
banks or water-courses, especially on the Sabbath day, 
might be described as Barnum did a strange creature 
he had in his menagerie: "It was five feet eleven inches 
high, and eighteen or twenty inches through, can bal- 
ance itself upright and walk on two limbs, having 
flanges behind and before; it is a wonderfully con- 
structed animal, and endowed with powers capable of 
marvellous uses; can feed itself and wipe its mouth 
as politely as a gentleman; can step along the street 
or brace up a lamp post; can even take part in some 
small talk and gossip in the shops and stores; can 
carry a morsel of scandal around and retail it as de- 
lightedly and pleased as a human being." When 
persons saw it, many thought it was really a man. 
To the disgrace of the human species, such a burden- 
some biped is called a man. It is not enough to 
quote Latin and Greek phrases or chatter French 
to be a man. It is said a parrot or starling can be 
taught to do this. One may possess the exhaustless 



248 THE GOLDEN POT. 

verbosity and rhetoric of George Francis Train, the 
elegant dress and cultured, exquisite address of Ches- 
terfield, or Beau Brummel, yet come far short of that 
divinely endowed being — a man. He may have a 
towering, stalwart frame, the brawn, sinews and physi- 
cal culture of the athlete, yet in no other respects be 
a man, for "brutal bruisers," tyrants and devils have 
dwelt in strong castles and beautiful palaces. He may 
have muscles loose as woolen threads, a poor, dis- 
tracted, feeble frame, yet in all other respects be a man 
— pure and regal, just as some of the noblest of the 
race have inhabited hovels and even dungeons. 

Manhood has proof clear and unmistakable. You 
must show yourself a man by what you do and what 
you will not do. Oftentimes one shows himself a 
man as much by what he will not do as by what he 
does. Although merely negative, it is no mean evi- 
dence of manhood to say "no" in the right time and 
place. Persons may face hostile cannon, go to the 
stake for an opinion or suffer martyrdom for glory; 
who, with an empty purse and an empty larder, or in 
the smile of human friendship, or prospect and promises 
of an office, could not say no to the devil himself. 
It is manly to refuse the use of that as a beverage 
which intoxicates. He has too much respect for his 
own manhood and love for his fellowmen to debase 
himself or help to inebriate them. A man will not 
blaspheme the name of his Maker and Redeemer, not 
covet the poor reward of an atheist's laugh. A man 
will not make a mock of sin; he will leave such sport 
for fools; he will not treat religion with indifference 
and the Bible with contempt or neglect; the greatest 
intellects of purest taste and finest culture have ever 
admired and loved it. A man will abhor obscene 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



249 



word or gesture, especially in the presence of women 
and children; a man will treat with true courtesy and 
respect the aged, however poor, homely or illiterate 
they may be; a man will not spot or puncture the face 
of beauty, and despoil the temple of truth and virtue 
by lust or falsehood. A man will scorn the bribes 
and gains of villainous enterprises, and refuse frater- 
nity with juntos, cliques and clans that pursue their 
ends by underground channels, darkness and secrecy, 
which robs manhood of its franchises, candor and 
honor. Take the whole range of petty meannesses 
and villainous skulking trickeries that are counted 
too insignificant to have a place in the catalogue of 
crimes, or be noticed in a penal code, and he that is a 
man will scorn them all because they are mean, a 
reproach to open, candid manliness. If he does not, 
and will not use his powers to effect crimes that imperil 
a nation, startle the world and glorify a devil, neitiier 
will he trail himself through the filthy streamlets and 
sewers of sin. A man will show himself a man by 
his regard for both body and soul. He cannot be 
indifferent to the earthly temple God has built for his 
soul. It is fearfully and wonderfully made by a 
Divine architect and worthy of every man's care and 
concern. But he is more concerned for his soul, the 
immortal inhabitant and worshipper, than for the 
temple, as he has more interest and anxiety for the 
undying spirits in his home, his wife and children, than 
for the house that covers them. So he is more con- 
cerned for the food, the health, the happiness and 
adornment of his soul than his body. A man provides 
for the necessities and demands of his intellectual and 
moral nature, seeks and acquires knowledge, because 
it is food, and power, and strength, and enjoyment 



250 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



to an intellectual and moral being. A man will fear,, 
and reverence, and worship, his Maker, because 
He is Creator and a being of infinite worthiness and 
glorious majesty; he will love and trust his Redeemer 
because He is his Saviour, and altogether excellent 
and most loving. A man will maintain and defend 
the rights of his fellow-men because they are rights, 
and the rights of men who can claim equity and 
equality with himself. A man will speak the truth 
whenever the honor of God or the welfare of men 
demands it, simply because it is truth, and the glory of 
Deity and happiness of humanity claim it. The 
world may frown or sneer, and cry fanatic or fool, 
reputation may be in peril, gains may become losses, 
and the white heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace may 
blaze in his face, but man is immortal, happiness is 
eternal, God is judge, and he will speak the truth if 
he be a man. 

A man will dare denounce and expose wrong and 
wickedness because it is wrong, and the honor of God 
and the safety of man demands it shall be exposed, 
conquered and exterminated. In the estimation of a 
man, the glory of the Divine One and the happiness 
of immortal men are higher and more valuable than 
all mere earthly and perishable interests. A man who 
makes his standard of truth and right the infallible 
law of God and the eternal principles of equity, for 
the true man well knows that fine editorials, thunders, 
of human applause, flaunting banners, roaring can- 
non, lofty monoliths and eloquent eulogies, all cannot 
make wrong right or the wrong-doer a victor, and 
the want of all these cannot make right wrong or 
rob the right-doer of his triumph; he is an eternal 
victor. He may be crucified, but he will also be glori- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 25 1 

fied. Such a man needs no special occasion to show 
his manhood. The forum of high debate, the theatre 
of war or scaffold of martyrdom are not necessary 
for him; he can show himself a man in the ordinary 
walks of life, in home duties and the family circle, in. 
the mart and on the farm, in the work shop and at the 
desk, in the school room and in the church, on the 
hustings and in the council ; by integrity, purity, truth- 
fulness and honor, can prove himself a man. 

And what are called the common, the small affairs 
of life, are a surer test of true manhood than the 
greater. He who is not patient, upright, manly in 
little things, will not be in the greater. He who 
cannot bear the annoyances of domestic life with 
manly patience and cheerfulness, could not endure the 
assaults of public life; he who cannot subdue the 
domestic midge cannot beard the lion; he who will 
not honestly make a boot would not honestly make 
a law; he who could not be a faithful coachman, would 
not be a faithful congressman; he who will not rule 
himself cannot govern others. True manliness is 
shown by enduring with patience the little ills and 
petty trials of life, meeting firmly and conquering 
calmly the unnoted foes, putting aside penny bribes 
and paltry titles, and proving himself a man every- 
day, in every duty, in any position, in every emer- 
gency. Such a man may fall from opulence to com- 
parative penury, but he can go from a palace to the 
lowly dwelling, gather his family around the scanty 
fireside and make home bright with hope and love 
and faith and prayer, because, being a true man, he 
knows that neither the world nor the devil, nor both 
together, can degrade virtue, stain honor, nor rob 
eternity. Put a sceptre in the hands of such a man, 



2 52 THE GOLDEN POT. 

make him a ruler, an executive, and he will honor 
law, vindicate justice, punish crime, protect innocence 
and administer for the honor of God the perpetuity 
of government and the welfare of humanity. Free- 
•dom will be secured, rights maintained and happiness 
promoted. Put such a man in the place of perilous 
duty, and he will meet danger as Bass Rock meets 
the billows — unmoved. God is above him, honor and 
truth are within him, men and angels watch him, 
eternity is before him, and duty is guarded by all these 
and he can be trusted there to show himself a man. 

In every place prove thyself a man, such as God 
created and crowned. Whether in high place or low, 
in public or private, in danger or safety, in temptation 
or out of it, in prosperity or adversity, show thyself 
a man, upright, intelligent, strong, faithful, a pure 
man, trusty and true — such as God honors and man 
admires. Your country is in sore need of such men. 
The nation dos not want for biped citizens with a 
beard; she has millions of them — great, little creatures; 
learned, lying creatures; smart, villainous creatures; 
ambitious servants for "price and reward," aspirants 
for sinecures civil and ecclesiastical. In the case of 
many of these place-seekers, their knowledge of the 
nation's wants, resources and commerce is limited to 
the price of cigars, whiskey and dress goods, their 
culture is the fine physical display and chaste gesticu- 
lation of the ball-room, and the fashionable manners 
of the streat. They are plenty and cheap as Mexican 
rubies at fifteen cents a bushel. 

We have no lack of that flaccid, flabby type of char- 
acter, whose fibre and whole texture is much like that 
-of a woolen stocking with many dropped stitches, 
and more easily raveled out. Their manly qualities 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



253. 



are much like slip shod shoes run down at the heel, 
easily put on and off; a feeble, soft, selfish, craven 
creature, that would melt like wax before the furnace, 
and fall before temptation like a Brahmin before a 
golden god; that would cower in adversity like a 
child in the darkness; that professes neither fear nor 
love of God, only possesses a cowardly fear of the 
devil, moved only by his interests, ruled only by in- 
stinct, appetite and desire; when he is angry, it :ias 
no higher source or character than that of a dog 
robbed of his bone. He is trustworthy nowhere, 
never shows himself a man, a strong, steadfast, true 
man, on any occasion, common or special, in any duty 
or position, public or private. Such men seem to be 
plenty in this day and land, and busy as maggots, and 
rapacious as cormorants. Neither the country nor 
the Church has any need of such. But both need 
building material, granite men, who can be built into 
the foundation and the walls of the temple of freedom; 
souls that have the fibre and toughness of the oak, 
made into the shipbeam that endures the storm. Men 
that, however rough and uncultured, shall be grand 
and immutable like the mountains, that will stand 
against the tide of temptation as the mountains stand 
against the sea. Men who know that God, the omnip- 
otent, just and holy One, is above them, immortality 
within them, eternity and heaven before them, and 
who know that happiness, greatness and glory 
is the fruit of pure and righteous doing. Make all 
your electors such men, and will any political mouser 
dare run round offering them ten dollars for their 
votes, or fifty dollars for their influence; a post office 
or an assessorship for partisan campaign help? No, 
indeed! They would as soon think of offering an 



^54 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



.angel a lot in the cemetery as a bribe. Put men of 
such mental and moral texture into authority and 
official place in your cities, and they will save you 
thousands of dollars a year in taxation, and their 
service and influence will be worth millions more. 
Put men of such intelligence, purity and pith in your 
jury box, and they will give your criminals a halter, 
or send them to learn a trade in the penitentiary, which 
is better for them and safer and cheaper for the tax- 
payer. Send men of genuine type to Congress, and 
Pacific railroads can be built for less than $200,000,000 
a line, and the nation can have a better credit than 
the Credit Mobilier. 

But if you send to your Legislature men who can 
always show themselves men, still there are some 
things they cannot do. Going there with nothing, 
and in debt for their campaign expenses, and living 
on the salary of a representative, they cannot in three 
years pay ten thousand dollars for a farm. They can- 
not in a single night pass an appropriation bill of a 
million dollars and have time for a champagne supper 
before morning. But these feats have been accom- 
plished in a capital not far hence. But men often 
show themselves men as much by what they cannot 
as by what they can do. But as men of talent and 
integrity, they can show it by protecting the treasury, 
trade and commerce, and promoting the material 
and moral development of the commonwealth and the 
nation. Make the electors and elected of this nation 
men of such moral stamina and steadfastness, of such 
fine invincible principles as Washington, Witherspoon, 
Roger, Sherman, Franklin, Lincoln and Hayes, and 
who does not know that a republic of such voters and 
-officers would be the purest, strongest, grandest, most 



THE GOLDEN POT. 255 

admired government on earth. From the chief justice 
down through all the grades of courts put the judicial 
robes only on such men as John Jay, Story and 
Strong, and the charge of bribery and corruption 
would never be heard, and villains would not laugh at 
court trials, dungeons and scaffolds as ridiculous 
.scare-crows; they would not mangle and murder and 
hum with impunity and run unhung over the land. 

The nation needs strong, firm, skilled men, moral 
and political surgeons, who will dare to probe and 
cleanse a wound or ulcer; if need be, to cauterize a 
sore or cut out a cancer. Such 

"As dare with vigor execute the laws, 
Her fettered members must be lanced and tented; 
He's a bad surgeon who for pity spares 
The part corrupted till the gangrene spread 
And all the body perish; he that's merciful 
Unto the bad is cruel to the good." 

Let justice be tempered with mercy, yet so tempered 
that justice will not be defrauded nor law and authority 
shamed. Put into the great centres of trade and 
commerce men who "fear God and hate covetousness," 
men who do not balance heaven and earth in the scales 
to see which they will buy, or if they cannot possibly 
get both; men who do not leave all conscience, honor 
and truth out of trade, who feel they are stewards of 
God and humanity, then "pools" and "corners" in 
Erie and Northwestern, in grain and gold, bulling 
up and bearing down the market may cease; but so 
long as such animals as "Old Hutch," Gould, Fisk, 
Drew and their ilk control the channels of trade, there 
-will be Reading combines, inhuman syndicates, and 
"Black Fridays" in Wall Street, and stock trade and 



256 THE GOLDEN POT. 

their branches will be little better than the most un- 
certain and thieving gambling schemes of Monte 
Carlo. What is needed is strong, noble men of "free 
clear minds and hearts of health." Any scheme of 
reform is vain that does not begin with reforming the 
hearts and lives of the citizen and produce full-orbed 
manhood. This will make the nation and the Church 
pure, strong and safe, grand and guarded at home, 
feared and admired abroad. How is our land to be 
supplied with men that can in every position prove 
themselves men, trusty, true and strong? 

David charged Solomon to show himself a man, 
and that he might do this, directs him "to keep the 
charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in His way, 
to keep His statutes and commandments, and His 
judgments and testimonies, that thou mayest prosper 
in all thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thy- 
self." And it is just as true in our land and time as 
three thousand years ago, and ever will be true, that 
only the principles of God's Word in the heart and life 
can make full-orbed manhood. He alone who gave 
the soul being can repair its injuries; His truth alone 
teaches the true relation between God and man, and 
man and man, and that love which is due to God and 
man; His truth alone places before the mind and heart 
pure and sufficient motives and authority to control 
the life. Our country has many men of fine physique, 
excellent intellectual powers and culture, and large 
attainments in secular, scientific and material knowl- 
edge; but they do not seem to be under the authority 
of motives that are high, pure and enduring enough 
to make them brave, unselfish, noblest men for God 
and humanity. We do not want simply intellectual 
animals of fine physical breadth and muscle — the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 2 $7 

teachings of Dio Lewis might supply these. We do 
not need simply burnished intellects and cultured 
mental powers — the schools, academies and colleges 
might give us these; and this training we must have. 
Do not for a moment suppose I would depreciate 
the value of the schools, the education, the culture 
of both body and mind; this is essential to complete 
manhood. But of all governments on earth, one 
constituted as ours is, founded upon such principles, 
having such institutions, must have men of healthy 
hearts, influenced by moral principles, pure and 
eternal, and God's Word alone can give us these. The 
strongest, purest, most faithful and trusted men of all 
the past, men faithful to freedom of man and every 
right and blessing of humanity, 

"Men at whose rebuking frown 

Dark with God's wrath, the tyrant's knee went down, 
That from the terrors of the guilty drew 
The vassal's freedom, and the poor man's due." 

were men who fed and grew strong on this food of 
heaven; men who mapped out civilized kingdoms, 
reared righteous governments and tribunals of justice, 
gave homes, peace and safety to men; wrought with 
instruments sharpened and furnished by Divine truth. 
The men who planted the asylum of freedom on the 
frigid, icy coast of New England, in the face of starva- 
tion and savage barbarism, were men of faith in God 
and love for men, who learned their principles from 
the Divine book. The strong men of the Revolution, 
who defied the roaring lion of Britain, who sacrificed 
and suffered and endured, even to impoverishment 
and death, were men that had God in their hearts 
through the truth. In illustration of this I need only 



258 THE GOLDEN POT. 

refer to General Washington on his knees at Valley 
Forge; to Samuel Adams, "a true Christian states- 
man," who had family worship night and morning; 
John Q. Adams, of whom Everett says, "The last 
great dominant principle of his life was the fear of 
God — there was the hiding of his power." Chief 
Justice John Jay and Witherspoon and Hopkins and 
Ellery and Livingstone, etc., all learned of Christ and 
His truth. Come to a succeeding generation of 
strong, patriot statesmen, and Jackson and Scott and 
Webster and Lincoln and Grant accepted Christ and 
His truth. Read the roll-call of the heroic and faith- 
ful of historic annals — faithful to every trust, faithful 
to right, freedom to humanity — you will find they 
have always been those whose moral manhood had 
been made by the nourishment of God's truth. The 
Hollander had learned that freedom of conscience and 
lawful liberty with poverty was better than papal 
error, inquisition and vassalage with wealth ; this made 
them manly and strong enough to cut their dikes and 
flood their country. The same manliness and truth 
nerved Winkelreid to gather a great sheaf of Austrian 
spears to his heart at the pass of Sempach, that Swit- 
zerland might be free. The same truth and manliness 
made the mountains and moors of Scotland a place of 
worship and a fortress against prelacy and vassalage, 
and our freedom is a legacy from those Highland 
guardsmen of the glen. Manliness born and nurtured 
through the spirit of truth settled America and freed 
it from the British yoke; the same manliness and truth 
proclaimed "liberty through the whole land." No 
nation needs so many men born of the truth and nour- 
ished to strength and greatness in the truth of God 
as this nation, because it is a government of electors 



THE GOLDEN POT. 259 

and elected, and nothing else can fit men for this but 
the truth of the Bible, which teaches the helplessness 
•of men, and the helpfulness of God. If the knowl- 
edge and fear of God and the truth of His Word is 
not planted in the hearts of a large number of the 
people of any land, that land camiot have a free gov- 
ernment; cannot establish and preserve the most 
precious rights and privileges of its people. Lamar- 
tine said of the early French republic — and the same 
might be said of the present one — "The republic of 
these men without a God has been quickly stranded. 
The liberty won by so much heroism and so much 
genius has not found in France a conscience to shelter 
it, a God to avenge it, or a people to defend it against 
that atheism which has been called glory. An atheistic 
republic cannot be heroic. When you terrify it, it 
bends; when you would buy it, it sells itself. The 
people ungrateful; God non-existent; so finish atheistic 
revolutions." Said the great Hooker, "The safety of 
the State dependeth on religion." In the British 
Parliament, Burke gave as the reason of the American 
colonists' love of liberty, "The Protestantism of the 
Protestant religion." 

John Milton's grandest idea of a strong, pure, good, 
civil government was "one huge Christian personage, 
one mighty outgrowth and stature of an honest man." 
To talk of this republic existing without the religion 
•of Christ is preposterous. It is to deny the truth of 
all history, of moral philosophy, and the truth of the 
Divine Word. Take all the arterial blood from a 
man's veins and the marrow from his bones, can he 
remain a man of vigor and health? Take the moral 
and regenerating principles of God's truth out of the 
channels of national life, out of the veins and marrow 



2 6o THE GOLDEN POT. 

bones of the republic, out of the common schools and 
those of a higher grade, out of legislatures and Con- 
gress, out of channels of trade and commerce, out of 
political and official responsibilities; take the cleansing 
virtues of the Divine Word out of these arteries of 
national life, and you take all moral nutriment, that 
which alone can make and feed the heart of manhood, 
and your electors and elected would soon be destitute 
of soul, health and strength to perpetuate the republic. 
It is not the decay of physical and intellectual cul- 
ture and strength that endangers our country, but 
that "the godly man ceaseth, that the faithful fail from 
among the children of men." The great want of the 
age, the country and the Church is men. "Men who 
are not for sale. Men who are honest, sound from 
centre to circumference, true to the heart's core. 
Men whose consciences are steady as the needle to 
the pole." Men who will stand for the right if the 
heavens totter and the earth reels. Men that can tell 
the truth firmly and in love, to the face of friend or 
foe "Men that neither brag nor run, that neither 
flag nor flinch." Men in whom the courage of ever- 
lasting life runs deep and strong; men who do not 
cry nor cause tl*eir voices to be heard in the streets, 
but who will not fail nor be discouraged till judgment 
be set in the earth; men who tell their message faith- 
fully; men who know their places and fill them; men 
who know their business and follow it honestly; men 
who will not lie for fear or favor, fame or pelf; men 
who are not too lazy to work, nor too proud to be 
poor ; men who are willing to eat what they earn, and 
wear what they pay for; men willing to endure the 
hardships of duty and bear one another's burdens. 



THE GOLDEN POT. 261 

"Give us men of the lion pattern, 
Bold and strong; 
Men of nerve, heart and soul, 

To grapple wrong, 
To rebuke the age's popular crime, 
The souls of fire, hearts of the olden time." 

Who keep the charge of the Lord, and in State and 
Church they will show themselves men, and God will 
be pleased and honored. 



XVI. 

Thanksgiving. 

i, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good" Psalm cxviii: 29. 

That we have abundant reasons for thanksgiving - 
and that it is a duty to be thankful I suppose none 
will deny. And that goodness received ought to 
produce a thankful spirit. As the warm shining of 
the summer sun clothes the earth with beauty and 
fills it with fragrance, so God's goodness should be- 
get joy and gladness in human hearts. As the flowers 
open their coral lips to drink the nectar dews of 
night, or showers of heaven, so the grateful heart 
should open thankful lips of praise under the gifts of 
Divine love. I have tried to imagine how one might 
get the best impression of God's goodness, as shown 
in the fruits and harvests of our land, and I have 
thought he might start about the first of June across 
the continent and take a view of the opening glory 
and overflowing wealth of the land. Under the 
lengthening days of the early summer, and the genial 
rays of the vital sunshine, the swollen buds were 
bursting into bloom, and full-blown flowers putting on 
a royal array, surpassing Solomon in all his glory; 
an emerald carpet enameled with vegetable mosaics 
was spread over hill, valley and plain; unnumbered 
leagues of corn rustled its dark green blades and 
waved its knightly plumes in the summer breeze, and 
unnumbered miles of wheat fields grew golden as the 
sunbeams kissed them and rolled their gentle billows 
like a shimmering sea, as the summer winds shook the 



THE GOLDEN POT. 263 

ripening grain. The vine clad mountains and vales 
of California were amber colored, grizzled and blue 
with the purple and many hued cluster of the grape 
that cheereth God and man; and in the broad valleys 
and along the mountain sides of distant Oregon, 
orchards bent their laden boughs toward the earth 
under the weight of fruit fit to hang in the fabled 
garden of the Hesperides. And as he came back 
across the great plains and prairies of the Mississippi 
Valley, travelling amid the reapers, and those who 
gathered and garnered such a harvest of grain and 
fruit as no other land on earth ever yielded, how could 
he help singing with the Psalmist: 

"The year Thou hast with goodness crowned, 
Thy paths drop fatness all around, 

E'en on the wilderness. 
The little hills with verdure clad 
Are girt with joy by Thee made glad, 

The flocks in pasture lie. 
The vales are robed with waving grain, 
And shout and song from hill and plain 

Swell joyous to the sky." 

Then coming further homeward, he stood on the 
summit of the Alleghenies in the gorgeous glories of 
the Indian summer, amid the ensanguined leaves 
and the emblazoned sober garb of the autumn moun- 
tains, resplendent with the purple and scarlet 
banners of laurel, ash and maple, royal pennons of 
the parting year, robed by the Eternal Father in a 
vesture more beautiful and many colored than Jo- 
seph's coat, sign of a father's favor. There perhaps 
he took from his pocket the report of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and read: The people of the 



264 THE GOLDEN POT. 

United States have gathered this year 480,000,000 
bushels of oats, 20,000,000 bushels of rye, 45,000,000 
bushels of barley, 11,500,000 bushels of potatoes, 
700,000,000 bushels of wheat, 1,680,000,000 bushels of 
corn, and fruits that could not be measured for 
quantity. Then coming on home, he found there 
was no day of thanksgiving observed. And methinks 
he would have said: The Lord might write across 
the continent in letters large enough to reach from 
short to shore, "Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted 
fiend." The harvest is past, the summer is ended, 
and this people is not saved from the guilt of un- 
thankfulness. Thank the Lord for a day of thanks- 
giving. And whether bankers or bakers, merchants 
or manufacturers, physicians, lawyers, preachers, 
whatever our pursuits, let us thank God for the 
bounteous harvests of earth, for we share them and 
are just as dependent on them as those who sow 
and garner them. 

Second. We have cause for thankfulness in the 
almost perfect freedom from any plague or scourge, 
and the general healthfulness of the year. Among 
no other 55,000,000 of the human race has there been 
as low a death rate and as little sickness and sorrow. 
In some localities there have been epidemics for a 
time, through certain limited areas there have been 
some floods, an occasional cyclone and destructive 
storm. Along the southern coast the earth shook 
to enough remind us of the truth that it is yet in the 
hand of the Almighty and that He can shake the 
wicked out of it. But we have had only black clouds 
enough to reveal the bow of Divine mercy across the 
dark canvass, its bright hues made by the shining 
of Divine love or the tear drops of sorrow. Only sick- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 265 

ness enough to remind us that we are still in the body, 
yet outside the gates of pearl. 

Third. Let us thank God for so many homes, happy 
homes in our land. We certainly have very many 
tmhappy homes — we still have selfishness, drunken- 
ness, cruelty, avarice, and lewdness, or, in one word, 
sin enough to kill the happiness and poison the life 
of many homes — yet we have more happy homes than 
any people on earth; homes such as are created by the 
teachings and spirit of Divine truth — homes composed 
of father and mother united in ties of that love which 
is the bond of perfectness; they and their children 
linked together in the golden chain of affection, that 
makes it the brightest and best miniature of heaven 
on earth — homes that are the nursery of piety and 
patriotism, the strongest bulwark of Church and State 
in this free land. I do not forget that our country 
is blotched with the foul ulcer and scab of Mormon- 
ism, but the lancet of the law will cut it out and the 
Gospel will heal the hurt. Still, we can say, in com- 
parison with other countries, ours is a land of homes; 
not simply of caravansaries, hotels, boarding houses, 
restaurants and club rooms, but homes for nursing 
love and virtue, patriotism, society and happiness. 
Every such a homestead is a patriotic nail driven in 
a sure place, over which you can unfurl the starry 
banner of the republic, assured that none will dare 
to pull it down. Let us thank the Lord for so many 
Christian homes, and increase them until, if possible, 
every citizen shall have a home. We ought to be 
thankful for peace in our land this year. But some 
may say, Why? There was no danger of war. I am 
not so sure of that. From whence, says the 
apostle, come wars and fighting? Anarchy, bold 



266 THE GOLDEN POT. 

and witless, capital and labor stood at defiance,. 
jealousy, envy, avarice and wantonness glowered 
angrily at each other; the metropolitan city gave a 
wild Socialist over sixty thousand votes for Mayor. 
If there was no danger, we ought to be most thankful 
for this. Scarcely any other land has been free from 
the alarm. Bulgaria seems to have been the daring 
chip on the shoulder, and all Europe has been say- 
ing who will dare knock it off. And the day of our 
woe and carnage is not yet so far behind us that we 
should forget thanks for peace. Not so far but we 
can look back and see the black lava tide of ruin 
turned by the hand of Divine mercy to the mountain 
side ; not so far back but we can recall 

"Years of trial and pain, 
Years of watching o'er the living, 
And of mourning o'er the slain; 
But God, the just and gracious, 
Has bid the tempest cease. 
And the voice of war is mute 
Before the coming in of peace." 

And as one means of continuing this blessing, let 
us be thankful for it. With glad song let us look 
upon the beauteous bow that spans the black cloud 
that has passed over us; the promise and pledge 
that the deluge shall not return; let us walk with 
happy hearts amid the sunshine that has followed the 
night of storm, lest the clouds return after the 
rain. Let us rejoice in peace, that white-robed 
angel with both hands full of blessings, whose pres- 
ence merits a greeting of holiest song. Peace that 
beats swords into plough shares and bayonets into 
pruning hooks and moulds cannon into machinery; 



THE GOLDEN POT. 267 

that makes implements of pacific labor with a glad- 
some rattle. Peace that stops the red-rimmed char- 
iot of war, that rolled over gory fields, and starts the 
wheels of creative industry. Peace that turns dis- 
banded armies home, quenches the torch, sheathes 
the sword and stops the march of desolation, and. 
through honored toil pours competency and comfort 
into the home of the laborer. Sweet peace! How 
numerous and rich are her blessings, covering fields 
with harvests, earth with beauty, and filling homes 
with happiness; bringing many blessings that will 
never come without her. Thank God fervently for 
peace, and pray God that it may be continued in right- 
eousness. We ought to thank God for the growth 
of the religion of Christ in our land. The fact that 
the law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is 
preached and taught so largely all over our land and 
making conquests over the hearts of men, is the 
richest blessing and brightest hope of our country, 
and cause for the deepest gratitude. Yet some, even 
Christian professors, are not willing to admit this 
statement, and even on Thanksgiving can do little but 
croak and lament the degeneracy of these days! That 
the Gospel makes little if any progress, if it is not 
absolutely losing ground. They remind us of the late 
terrible infidel convention, which did not resolve to 
build and endow a great leviathan infidel university, 
but they did resolve to blot A. D. from all our al- 
manacs and write E. M. instead, so that men should 
not be exposed to the superstition and peril of reading 
"The year of our Lord" any more, but should read, 
"Era of Man." And they are alarmed at the noise 
of these owlets of atheism hooting through the forests 
of night and naturalism! They will tell you of the 



J26S THE GOLDEN POT. 

corruption and villainy that runs through all official 
ranks, from the Presidency to the cross-roads post 
office, and the debauchery of city life, the number of 
doggeries and brothels in New York or some other 
large cities, and how lewd talk and blasphemy pollutes 
even the sweet air of mountain tops, and the Church 
itself is leavened with hypocrisy, selfishness and scur- 
rility; but they do not seem to see a speck of blue 
sky between the floating clouds. I am afraid their 
liver is congested, and roasted turkey would be a 
very improper diet for them to-day, or their eyes are 
jaundiced, or their vision so short that they cannot 
see beyond their own ecclesiastical yard fence. We 
certainly admit that the millennium is not upon us, 
but while we recognize the truth of most, if not all, 
that is said about the corruption and depravity of 
the times, and would have it known that it may be 
removed; I would not hide one ugly feature of the 
foe; yet let us not hide cheering facts and grateful 
progress, let us not reproach Divine power and 
promises, and weaken Christian faith and effort by 
croaking, especially when we have so much cause 
for joy and thanksgiving, amid all the depravity 
and unbelief. From a careful compiler of statistics 
I gather the folowing facts: First. That the increase 
in the evangelical churches in the United States since 
1800 is twenty-seven times greater than the increase 
of population. Then the population of the United 
States from ten years and upward was 3,794,000; pro- 
fessors of Christ, 350,000. In i860, the population 
from ten upward was 22,293,000; professors of Christ 
nearly 6.000,000! Now our population altogether is 
above 70,000,000; and professors of Christ between 
11,000,000 and 20,000,000. In 1800 it was one to 



THE GOLDEN POT. 269 

eleven, now it is about one to four. Thus it is 
seen that the Word of God has not been void, but He 
has given it a Divine power and leavening influence 
on the hearts of our people. The Methodist denomi- 
nation has built over an average of one church a 
day last year; some other denominations have done 
as much and promise more. Our own branch of 
Christ's Church added over 50,000; and some others 
more. Oh, no; the Church has no notion of saying 
good bye, old Bible! While we believed your teach- 
ings concerning this life, it led to much happiness 
here, and while we believed your revelations of a 
life to come, it was a sunny hope and sweet com- 
fort in sickness and sorrow, in the death chamber, 
and among the graves; but we have learned a bet- 
ter philosophy of living and your revelation is all a 
myth. Good bye. Good, bye, Jesus Christ; you were 
a very lovely character to live in such an age as you 
did, and we once rested great hopes on you, but if 
there was such a person as you, we have found out 
you were only a Jew and had your day. Good byet 
The Church has less inclination to utter such a male- 
diction to the Book of God and her Divine Redeemer 
than in any period of her past history; but she will 
soon bid farewell forever to all infidel clubs and 
Watkins' Glen conventions, and hear no more of 
them to the end of time unless some curious anti- 
quary should at some future day dig up their rotten 
names as a curiosity of a past age. The Bible teach- 
ing alone is the foundation of liberty, civil and re- 
ligious, it alone breathes the breath of liberty into 
the human heart. Where no Bible is and no Gospel 
preached, human freedom never was found and 
never will be; and where liberty has been planted, 



2 7 THE GOLDEN POT. 

throw away the Bible or trample its teachings un- 
der foot, and liberty will not be long defended or con- 
tinue there. When a foreigner in England asked 
Queen Victoria what gave her nation freedom, 
greatness and glory, laying her hand on the Bible, 
she replied, "The teachings of this book." Even 
Herbert Spencer admits that intelligence and men- 
tal culture are not enough to secure the permanence 
of a republic. It must have moral culture. Intel- 
lectual culture is only sharpening the razor, but 
whether it shave the beard or cut the throat depends 
upon the moral character. And that morality must 
jest not only in natural but revealed religion. It must 
be Gospel morality. The citizens of a republic must 
live under the recognition of God above them, the 
principles of His law in their hearts, and judgment 
and eternity before them. 

The essential foundation of a republic is justice 
and equality for every citizen before the law of the 
land, and the responsibility of human government to 
the Supreme Governor of the universe. And this 
truth is taught with authority only in the Bible. We 
admit the duty of expressing gratitude for individual 
blessings, and blessings on particular communities 
and families and churches; the blessings on body, 
soul and estate; for the blessings of Providence, 
creation and grace, for the command of the apostle 
is, "Give thanks unto God, the Father, for all things 
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." But how 
impossible to enumerate all these things! When 
the clouds are gathered densely over all the heavens 
above you, their fulness is opened, and the precious 
drops are hastening down to the needy, parched 
earth, did you ever think of standing in your door- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 271 

-way and trying to count each pearly blessing- as it 
fell? Certainly not — how impossible! Or, as the 
morning sun rode up the eastern sky to pour a flood 
of light on the earth, did you ever think of counting 
the bright golden arrows that fell over all your val- 
leys and mountains? Of course, you say no, it would 
be impossible! But neither of these would be much 
.more impossible than to enumerate the "all things" 
for which we should give thanks to God and the 
Father. To do this you must count every blessing 
.that pours in through every organ. Every glad sound 
the ear can hear, every sweet and nutritious thing 
the tongue can taste, every fragrance borne to you 
upon the air, every beauteous sight the eye can see, 
every delight and pleasure to which your feet can 
•carry you, every blessing your hands can gather, and 
that is absorbed through the pores of the body! You 
must also enumerate all the happiness that can reach 
you through every organ of the soul; all that reason 
and intellect can impart, all that imagination can 
create, all the happiness the affections are capable 
of enjoying. You must add to these all friends and 
relations can afford; all that society, secular and 
sacred, social and religious, society enlightened, re- 
fined and regenerated, can supply of happiness. But 
more than this, you must add to all these the count- 
less invaluable blessings of the covenant of grace! 
To do this you would have to go back into the past 
eternity, to the fountain source, and follow the river 
of life through all the cycles of time, and on through 
the eternity to come; you must pass from eternity 
to eternity, then enlarge your heart as the heart of 
God to compass it all! How impossible! We can 
only exclaim with the Psalmist, "Earth is full of Thy 



272 THE GOLDEN POT. 

goodness, and Thy mercy is above the heavens." As 
a nation, we have abundant reason for gratitude in 
what we can see and tell and comprehend. Oh, my 
country, be glad and grateful to-day, God hath ac- 
cepted thy sacrifices and granted thee thy heart's 
wish! Then send up an anthem of thanksgiving 
from sea and land, mountain and prairie, hill and 
plain, from palace and hamlet, from farm house and 
workshop, from mechanic and merchantman, from 
soldier and sailor, from the paths of peace to the 
memories of war! Let the freedman join those whose 
freedom is still preserved. Let the bereaved widow 
join her who has yet a husband. Let the nation's 
orphans join those on their father's knee. Let 
mourners join the comforters. Let forests, fruitful 
trees and cedars; let rulers and judges of the land; 
let high and low, rich and poor, young men and 
maidens, old men and children, let each thing breath- 
ing praise the Lord and give Him thanks, for He is 
good! Amen and amen! 



XVII. 

A Young Man's Strength. 

"The glory of young men is their strength" Proverbs xx: 29. 

In the Vatican at Rome is a human form carved 
In marble with such a noble expression of triumph 
upon the face, such exquisite symmetry of figure, such 
an impression of strength in the finely rounded mus- 
cular limbs, such a consciousness of power, easy, 
graceful movement and enjoyable activity clothing 
the whole form, it has been the delight and admiration 
of the world of art for ages. One of the first of poets 
thus describes it: 

"In his delicate form is exprest 
All that ideal beauty ever blest; 
These stood star-like around 
Until they gathered to a god." 

So wrote Byron of the Apollo Belvedere, the Greek 
•divinity of grace, music and manly beauty. What is 
this piece of statuary, the art world's paragon of 
manly strength, but an attempt to express in marble 
the glory of that strength which the Divine Artist 
embodied in the creation of man? And, though im- 
paired by the fall into sin, has been transmitted in a 
glory of strength that is regal yet in the prime of 
young manhood to-day. From the smooth, round, 
ruddy, soft and dimpled form of infancy this young 
Apollo is twenty years in reaching bis fullest perfec- 
tion ; twenty years growing under the infinitely skillful 
workman, in the plastic hand of Divine law and care, 



274 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



he attains full stature. The bones gradually lengthen- 
ing and hardening, the muscles enlarging and tough- 
ening, the tendons, sinews, and every fibre growing 
tense and strong, every nerve becoming an electric 
conductor of vital power, all fitly framed and com- 
pacted together by that which every joint supplieth. 
Yet in all its growth losing nothing of it's symmetry,, 
suppleness and grace, only clothing itself with the 
glory of lithe, active, joyous strength. When this 
living statue, built of flesh, and bone, and blood, and 
brawn, and nerve, so exquisitely knitted and woven, 
and moulded, and compacted together, and fashioned 
into the form of youthful manhood and strength, thus 
completed it excels in grace of feature and expression 
of power any possible sculptured Apollo, as far as 
Divine workmanship excels the human. 

The sculptured Apollo is only cold, motionless mar- 
ble, nothing more; but this human Apollo is exuberant 
with life, and becomes the real god of the healing art, 
eloquence, poetry, song and music of earth, for 
through that marvellous, magnetic and electric organ 
of brain in the dome, the mind, more marvellous still, 
kindred to and kindled by the eternal spirit, immaterial 
and incomprehensible, puts forth through the brain 
a god-like strength that gathers heaven and earth 
into its embrace; a power that can weigh, measure 
and value all matter and subdue it to human will and 
service and conquer all below the angels; with a 
reasoning power profounder than the depths of the sea, 
broader than the measure of the earth, and in its 
upreach higher than the stars; a judgment whose 
edicts and decisions express his royalty, and a will 
that makes him a sceptered sovereign ; an imagination 
that is a gorgeous chamber of imagery, and a fancy 



THE GOLDEN POT. 275 

that can sweep on tireless pinions through space as 
winged angels might and out of matter create and 
people invisible and immaterial worlds. In addition 
to all this, a heart that is the shrine of devotion, the 
palace home of love and a magazine of emotions and 
passions, good or bad, that when moved as the sea 
in a storm, have a power like that which sometimes 
rocks and rends the globe. 

This, all this power combined, the strength of a 
sound, supple, symmetrical, elastic body, the strength 
of a clear, healthful, disciplined mind, incisive and 
comprehensive in reasoning, a judgment calm, fair 
and firm in decision, a will fixed and steadfast in pur- 
pose; a heart pure in its desires and affections, strong 
in all its emotions and passions, yet under motives 
so high and holy that earth cannot win, bribe or 
betray it; all this strength of body, mind and heart 
robes a young man in a radiant glory of strength that 
is a regal coronet, a prize above all price, which he 
should wear and glory- in, and guard and preserve with 
jealous vigilance as his most royal treasure. 

If one should enter the Belvedere gallery, and from 
any motive whatever stain, mar or mutilate that 
marble Apollo, he would be denounced as a sacrilegious 
vandal, and his life would be in danger. When this 
beautiful statue was first discovered at Antium, one 
hand was missing, and one arm imperfect. This was 
greatly lamented by artists as a sad misfortune, and 
when the genius of Michael Angelo's pupil restored 
the mutilated member, the achievement was greeted 
with joyous expressions of applause. Then what 
should be thought of one who would emasculate or 
mutilate the strength of young manhood, palsy hand, 
or tongue, or brain, mar and despoil the work of the 



276 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Divine Sculptor? Yet there are such human vandals 
and demons among men that they are ready not only 
to dim the brightness of this glory, but utterly destroy 
all strength of body, mind and soul. Young men, 
your glorious strength has many foes standing ready 
to devour it as the dragon the man-child born of the 
woman, clothed with the sun and crowned with the 
stars. 

There is an army of over one hundred and eighty 
thousand men in this land, who are armed and pro- 
visioned with a purpose to do battle against your 
strength. They expect to live by devouring your 
strength, nay, more, they expect to make their wealth 
by consuming your strength. They have an invested 
capital of some seven hundred millions of dollars! 
This must make some two million dollars a day, and 
they expect to make a large part of this by bartering 
away your strength. There are in this land some ten 
million from fifteen to thirty years of age who may 
be called young men. By seducing this multitude to 
trade the strength of their young manhood with them, 
they hope to profitably use their vast capital and live 
and become wealthy on your loss. Other men toil 
with hands and brains or trade in the fruits, forests, 
harvests or minerals of earth or animal life to make 
their wealth, but this army of one hundred and eighty 
thousand drunkard makers live and gather lucre only 
by devouring human strength and life, with no com- 
pensation to the victims. Be sure you cannot saturate 
blood, brain, muscle and marrow in a solution of 
alcohol and not destroy brawn, brain, nerve and sinew. 
You might as well soak the ropes of a sailing vessel 
in nitric acid and hope to sail safely over stormy seas. 
But it eats up not only bodily strength, but that of 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



277 



mind and heart also. This is the foe which Shake- 
speare says "men put into their mouths to steal away 
their brains." 

Under the kindling of the intoxicant, the mental 
powers may appear to display a glorious brilliancy 
for a time, but like fuel upon which oil is poured, 
only burns fiercely to die the sooner and utterly 
leave the sodden brain paralyzed and the heart turned 
to stone. 

Other foes to your strength are the Jezebel painted 
faces that look out of the windows, and the siren voices 
of unholy love that sing the song of death in your ears. 
This fills the bones of youth with corroding sin, and 
"a fire not blown that consumeth to destruction." 
Says Solomon, "None that go unto her return again, 
neither take they hold of the paths of life; her feet 
go down to death and her steps take hold on hell." 
Gambling in all its forms and ways, from the toss of 
the copper and dice to faro and Wall Street stocks, 
and futures, are foes to your strength. Because its 
unhealthy and unholy excitements consume marrow 
and morals and all vitality of body and soul; so does 
all business pursued in the spirit and ways of gam- 
bling. A writer has truly said: "At one side of the 
gaming table sits Romance, Enthusiasm and Ecstacy, 
and on the other Fierceness, Rage and Tumult." 
And he might have added: Desperation and Death. 
Did time permit, it would be impossible to enumerate 
all the foes of your strength. Error and falsehood 
in every form and on every subject are enemies to 
be dreaded. Physical, intellectual and moral error; 
ignorance of your body's nature, laws and needs, also 
of mind and soul; philosophical and scientific false- 
hood; error concerning God and man, sin and holiness, 
right and wrong, heaven and hell, all are foes. 



278 THE GOLDEN POT. 

As surely as poisonous food is hurtful to bodily 
strength, so error on any subject is to mental, moral 
and spiritual strength and health. Therefore this 
glory may be imperiled by what you read, or hear 
spoken, or in any way receive into the thought and 
heart. Young man, your daily life is the immortal 
dreamer's "Siege of Man-Soul" carried on every day. 
And the multitude of foes that assault Mouth Gate, 
Eye Gate, Ear Gate, and every possible way of en- 
trance to the citadel of life, are almost numberless; 
they seem to swarm in through the very pores ! Along 
almost every street of every city of the land they lurk 
and ambush in gin-houses, picture galleries, theatres 
and gaming halls. To the ear comes blasphemy and 
obscenity, to the eye folly and gilded and painted lust, 
to the tongue poison. What is called nude art in 
painting and statuary makes most of our galleries, 
and even some so-called Christian homes, perilous 
by foul suggestions and debasing fancies. Christian- 
ity has no quarrel with the fine arts that teach, elevate 
and purify, but the conceptions and expressions of 
some sculptors and painters seen in galleries and pri- 
vate houses are simply an abomination unworthy of 
a heathen age. It is a shame to the Christian civili- 
zation of this century that to walk the streets of our 
cities is more dangerous to our sons and daughters 
than to run an Indian gauntlet. 

Against all these the siege of Man-Soul might be 
sustained if there was no treason within. Of all the 
besieged cities of which history gives us record, very 
few fell by outside assault alone. Babylon fell by 
debauchery and drunkenness within; Rome was be- 
trayed, and Jerusalem fell through riot and murder 
within. Everv voung man is conscious of this truth 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



279 



that he has a wayward desire, an inborn curiosity 
of life and lust, a something continually inclined to 
open the gate to the tempting besiegers without. We 
call it native depravity, and it gives the besiegers 
fearful odds against your strength. If you could mass, 
and count and measure the power of all your foes, 
you would feel the need of sleepless vigilance, lest they 
rob you of this glorious robe and crown of your man- 
hood. Neither does the Church, I think, do all she 
might to help young men against their foes. Young 
men who are among strangers, away from under the 
pure influences of home, parents, sisters, Christian 
friends, good society, intellectual tastes, and church 
opportunities, are in a special manner exposed, un- 
armed, to their foes. And if, with all helps surround- 
ing them, so many young men fall, like shorn Sam- 
sons, to grind as blind captives in the prison house, 
or make sport in the temple of Dagon, how great must 
be the peril of those away from all these strong friends 
and helpers, who, when freed from toil, are tortured 
with a loneliness and restlessness that they know not 
how to comfort or satisfy! These ought to have the 
Church's tenderest sympathy and constant care. The 
churches ought to be so arranged, equipped and sup- 
plied that they could be opened every day and evening 
of the year, and made a resting, reading, instructive 
and social place, as well as a devotional place for the 
young. Then we might not have so much need for 
the Young Men's Christian Associations; but as this 
is not so, then build homes for these Associations of 
their own, so furnished, equipped and beautified they 
will be more attractive and enjoyable than the glitter- 
ing fascinations that tempt young men without. Al- 
toona can lighten her taxes, enhance the security of all 



2 8o THE GOLDEN POT. 

her possessions, promote the peace, purity and enjoy- 
ment of her society, commend herself to the Christian 
world, and honor her name, by putting fifty thousand 
dollars into such an association building. Save these 
young men, whose glory is their strength, at whatever 
cost of money or effort. Save them from the foes that 
would rob themselves, and our country and heaven of 
the glorious strength of their manhood. Romancers 
and travellers tell us, as if it was a great misfortune, 
that we have no grand, costly old ruins in our country. 
Then they will describe some crumbling temple or 
ancient castle of Asia or Europe, where the keep is 
broken down, the moat empty and dry, the garden 
overgrown with weeds, the stone and marble columns 
and walls rent and crumbling, the roof fallen in, the 
costly carving, fresco, statuary and paintings, stained 
and molded by the storms of snow and rain beating 
upon them; the great halls and grand stairways, only 
a habitation for owls and bats! And they exclaim, 
what a melancholy and costly ruin! Truly, we have 
no such old ruins, but, alas! we have thousands of 
young ruins, infinitely sadder and more costly than 
any of these. The once athletic, manly, graceful form 
of strength shorn of all its glory. The bones crum- 
bling with cancerous sin, the muscles shrunken and 
flabby, the sinews, nerves and tendons flaccid and 
feeble, like cords eaten by corrosive acid; the once 
ruddy face a bloodless pallor, or the hue of faded 
parchment; the mind sodden, delirious or imbecile; 
reason, judgment and will deposed kings and helpless 
captives; the affections polluted and vile, the heart 
like a cage of every unclean and hateful bird! The 
man an uncrowned, unsceptered, deposed king, a 
tottering maudlin invalid, not from age, but sinful, 



THE GOLDEN POT. 281 

premature senility; a physical, mental, moral and 
eternal ruin! All the ruins buried in the plains of 
Babylon or under the walls of Karnac and Thebes, 
or crumbling along the shores of Egypt, or over the 
lands of Europe, will not equal in sadness and costli- 
ness one such as this. 

If one should mutilate or dash in fragments ten 
thousand marble Apollos and all the columns of Per- 
sepalos, he would be guilty of no such vandalism as 
one who despoils a young man of his glorious 
strength! Young man, however you may glory in 
your strength and however great your real strength 
may be, be assured you will never be able to meet and 
defeat all your foes alone. And chiefly because of 
the inborn evil propensity to open the doors to your 
enemies from without. What we call native deprav- 
ity, the corruption of your nature, is a traitorous weak- 
ness, that puts your greatest strength in constant peril. 
No use to deny this truth. Every man who has any 
true knowledge of himself is conscious of it, and knows 
he is in danger of yielding to it any moment. 

I was told that John B. Gough, when he first signed 
the pledge, and promised to enter the lecture field 
against intemperance, was so conscious of his weak- 
ness he was afraid to start alone. A faithful friend 
was secured to go with him, and remain with him 
constantly. That friend kept close to him for years, 
wherever he went through this country, and went with 
him all over England. Whenever he was going to 
a dangerous place, he warned him. When the in- 
satiable, over-mastering appetite came upon him with 
power, this friend reminded him of the demons that 
gloated over him in his delirium, of the horrid, bot- 
tomless abyss into which they would plunge him; of 



2&2 THE GOLDEN POT. 

his mother, wife, home and friends, and their hope of 
him, and the bright and heavenly light and happiness 
that opened a radiant pathway before and above him. 
Thus he strengthened the weakness of the man, until 
he was able to walk his way alone, in victorious free- 
dom for years on earth, and die with the full liberty 
and honor of the sons of God. 

Now, whether you have the drunkard's weakness 
or not, you have another more subtle, treacherous 
and mighty, that is, the sinful corruption of your 
nature, against which you need the help of a constant 
friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Such an 
one is provided in Him who has become an elder 
"brother and kinsman to the sons of men. Take the 
Son of God, Jesus Christ, the ever-present Friend, 
into your heart and life-fellowship on the journey. 
Then, when you are in danger, through His Word 
and Spirit He will warn you when temptation assails 
you in power, and "the enemy comes like a flood," 
He will lift up a standard against him, as He reminds 
you how gloating fiends, in the day of your hopeless- 
ness or remorse, triumphed in your ruin, and of the 
bottomless pit of despair and death into which they 
would plunge you, and recalls to you the love for you 
and hope in you of your mother, wife, children and 
friends, and points you to an upward shining pathway, 
that grows brighter and brighter until lost in the glory 
of His presence whose full radiance swallows all in- 
ferior light, as the sun does the light of the stars; in 
every infinitely wise way He will guide you and guard 
you, and gird you with strength, and cheer and glad- 
den yon as no mere human and earthly friend could 
do, for He will put omnipotent and everlasting arms 
underneath and around you, until you are able to walk 



THE GOLDEN POT. 283 

in the manliest, noblest freedom of earth. Then when 
toil and sickness and age waste all your present life- 
strength, as they surely will, still you can accept with 
cheerfulness the loss, and sing in assured hope that 
you shall glory forever in the strength of an eternal 
youth! 



XVIII. 
The Devil's Plea. 

"Let us alone," Luke iv: 34. 

The witnesses of that day were amazed at this mir- 
acle, saying, "What a word is this?" If such a work 
were done in presence of the skeptics of to-day they 
would perhaps be astonished and admit there might 
be something of supernatural power in the work; yet 
they are neither astonished nor convinced by greater 
works the Lord is doing every day, in casting the 
demon of drunkenness, lust, pride, cruelty and sin out 
of the souls of men — greater proof of His power and 
grace than casting demons out of human bodies. It 
is a far greater miracle to pardon a guilty soul, en- 
lighten it, renew it, transform and purify it, than to 
deliver the body of any evil that possesses it, and this 
the Lord Jesus is doing every day against the will of 
the possessed soul. 

How did this demon treat Christ, and how did Christ 
treat this demon? Did the demon use the man's 
bodily organs, talk with the man's tongue? If so, was 
the man responsible for what the devil did with his 
organs, spoke with his tongue? Such questions I do 
not propose to answer, but to use this person as rep- 
resenting the sinner possessed of to-day, and what He 
did for that victim He does for those tormented by 
the devil of sin now. 

This devil rebelled at Christ's command and work, 
saying, "Let us alone." Apparently they do not ask 
much. But don't they? Let us work our will with 



THE GOLDEN POT. 285 

this man, whatever misery and ruin he may suffer. In 
saying, "Let us alone," they virtually say, "And we 
will let you alone." This was not true; they were not 
then letting Christ alone. So, to-day, Christ, in His 
Word, and His teachers and preachers and disciples, 
comes to the possessed by the demon of sin and offers 
to cast the evil out, but they resist as this devil did 
and say, "Let us alone." 

First. The dram-seller says, "Let us alone. Mind 
your own business; you may sell wheat, or shoes, or 
corn, or preach, do what you please, we won't meddle 
with you. We do not ask you to go into our business 
nor be responsible for it. Why should you meddle 
with us? If your religion makes you meddlers as 
well as hypocrites, it is a poor product and no recom- 
mendation. All we ask is to be let alone, and every- 
one has a right to demand that, in justice. Mind 
your own business is just as good law as one of your 
ten commandments." 

Second. The dram-drinkers and drunkards say, 
"Let us alone. You need not drink if you don't want 
to. We will not compel you to drink. By what right 
can you compel us to quit? You might as well 
compel us to eat certain food and wear certain clothes, 
or forbid us food and clothes altogether! How does 
it come to be your business what we drink or when 
or how much? It don't hurt you. Even if we see 
fit to get drunk, and, as you say, burn our bodies 
and souls and go to hell, it is none of your business. 
We do not ask you to go with us. Let us alone." 

Third. The Turk says, "Let us alone. We are bet- 
ter than you. We have not the thousands of grog 
shops and drunkards in our land, like England and 
Germany and America. If we have to chastise our 



286 THE GOLDEN POT. 

Armenian subjects, it is none of your business. We 
know best what they deserve, and what is needed to 
subdue and control them. And you had better mind 
your own business — it will cost you less and be more 
profitable." 

Fourth. The Spaniard and the Spanish government 
say, "Let us alone. We discovered Cuba and have 
ruled it for four hundred years, and if we see fit to 
chastise its rebellion and rob it and starve its people 
and flay them all, and leave the island a habitless ruin, 
it is none of your business — they are our subjects. The 
commandments forbid you to covet or steal, yet you 
want to steal our island! We only ask you to let 
us alone." 

Fifth. Great railroad and manufacturing corpora- 
tions, and all Sabbath breakers, say, "Let us alone. 
If we wish to operate our mills or run our trains on 
the Sabbath, it is none of your business. We do not 
compel nor ask you to ride on the trains. We are 
big enough to take care of ourselves. If you do 
not want to be squelched and exterminated, do not 
be impertinent and meddlesome. The tortoise cannot 
contend with the elephant; if the elephant should but 
set its foot on the tortoise, it would only have breadth 
and no thickness. The mouse cannot fight with the 
lion; after one stroke of his paw or snap of his jaw 
there would be no mouse. It would be better not 
to meddle." 

Sixth. The devil, through many human lips, says, 
"Let the heathen alone. They prefer their religion, 
they think it best for them, and perhaps it is. They 
enjoy their polygamy and harems, and their way of 
worship and living. You are only disturbing them 
and sowing strife among them and making trouble 



THE GOLDEN POT. 287 

in their homes. What right have you to destroy their 
religion, any more than they have to destroy yours? 
Let them alone!" 

Seventh. The devil that is in every sinning soul 
makes the same plea, "Let us alone. If we prefer to 
continue in sin, it's none of your business, you are 
not responsible. Is it any of your business what we 
make our pleasures and when we practice them? Or 
whether we pray or pay any attention to either law or 
Gospel? Who gave you any right to come to us per- 
sonally or to our homes or places of business to re- 
prove us and exhort us and beg us to repent and 
believe your teaching? Are we not free? Have we 
not a right to do as we please? Let us alone." This 
is the devil's plea round the whole circle of self- 
oppressors, and oppressors of others, evil-doers, sinful 
and imperilled souls, all over the earth. This plea, 
or demand, we must refuse for the following reasons: 

1st. The teachers and preachers and disciples of the 
Lord either represent and serve Jesus Christ, or they 
do not. If they do, then it is to this Lord of the whole 
earth and Redeemer of men that those we have men- 
tioned, and all rebellious subjects, are replying, "Let 
us alone." The teachers, ministers and disciples are 
only ambassadors and servants of this supreme Lord, 
and the charge of intermeddling and impertinence 
they can without fear turn over to Him, and He will 
answer for them. These devils in men, and mighty 
corporations, are not fighting a tortoise or a mouse, 
but omnipotent justice, and this conquering King is 
not paling His face in the presence of elephant or lion. 
He is able to take care of His law, authority and 
honor, when these are invaded and insulted. In the 
case now before us, He refused the plea. Why? Be- 



288 THE GOLDEN POT. 

cause this devil was not letting the Lord Jesus alone. 
The human being this devil had taken possession of 
was, body and soul, the property of the Lord Jesus, 
and the devil was trying to steal it. This the Lord 
•could not permit and keep His honor, truth and 
rights. Yet this is the impudent demand of many 
human beings whom the devil possesses to-day. 
While in the very act of stealing the Lord's day, prop- 
erty and honor and every human right, they cry out, 
"Let us alone. We are not hurting you!" 

Again, the devils were making a human being 
wretched in body and soul, and helpless and miserable 
for all eternity. This Jesus could not permit, because 
He loved human beings, as their Creator, and espe- 
cially as their Redeemer. He will not let devils nor 
men alone who are making others miserable. Whether 
human beings are making themselves miserable and 
hopeless, or making others so, or are made so by 
•devils, the Lord Jesus, because of His love and justice, 
will not let them alone. Yet to-day many devils, in 
the form of human beings, both men and women, are 
making themselves and others unutterably wretched 
and hopeless, and are crying out, "Let us alone. 
What right have you to meddle with us!" But no 
man or woman can be like Christ, and act like Christ, 
and let them alone. We, as Christians and servants 
of Christ, cannot let the liquor sellers alone, because 
they will not let us alone. Will they let your sons, 
sons-in-law, or even your daughters, alone? In their 
very childhood, by liquor-loaded candies and every 
other satanic device, they will create an appetite that 
will lead them to the saloon, and there despoil them, 
body and soul. They will rob your daughter of her 
husband and drive her and her children, ragged and 



THE GOLDEN POT. 289 

hungry, from their home's shelter, with no more 
compunction than a wolf. They are piling on us 
police costs, and court costs, and jail costs, and peni- 
tentiary costs, and poor-house costs, far exceeding 
all the revenue they ever paid. They are robbing 
the Lord and the earth of some of the grandest bodies 
and souls of the human race. They are murdering 
and burying in dishonored, hopeless graves, sixty 
thousand a year. Even the Turk can make us blush. 
A book has been written by a Turk, now translated 
into English, in which the author argues, "Even if 
it were true that they had slain fifty thousand Ar- 
menians in a year, American and English saloons have 
slain more than one hundred thousand, which is some- 
thing the Turkish government never did, for it pro- 
hibits saloons." With shame we have to admit the 
indictment. If the Turkish government can prohibit 
drinking saloons, why cannot the great American 
republic? Or if Mohammedanism can suppress in- 
toxicating drinking and drunkenness, why cannot 
Christianity? This traffic is guilty of greater robbery 
and causes more misery and death than war. In 
camp and battle we mass and count our dead, killed 
and lost, but by this traffic they are falling by the 
wayside, on the streets, and in homes, all over the 
land, by one and twos uncounted, but in the aggregate 
count more than any year of our great rebellion on 
hattle fields! This traffic will never let Christ and 
His followers alone, and they can never let it alone 
until it is abolished. 

We cannot let the dram-drinkers and drunkards 
alone. They are robbing Church and State of both 
"body and soul service, to which both Church and State 
have a right. They are robbing the Lord of all His 



290 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



rights in body and soul. They are making women 
and children by thousands paupers and untold suf- 
ferers, and we have to. pay for keeping these thousands 
from starving and freezing, whether in the poor-house 
or out of it. They are disturbing the peace and 
rest of families and society, day and night, and im- 
periling business in all its channels. And it is no im- 
pudence or infringement of personal liberty to pro- 
hibit their drinking and drunkenness. They rob and 
hurt themselves and us and thousands of others, and 
we cannot do right and duty and let them alone. As 
teachers, ambassadors and servants of Christ, we 
cannot let Sabbath breakers, violators of Sabbath 
law, alone, whether they are railroads, manufacturers 
or individuals, because they are either transgressing 
God's law, or they are not. If they are, they are 
offending and dishonoring God and robbing laborers 
of their right to rest, religious knowledge and worship, 
and exposing many to righteous, Divine wrath. As 
ambassadors and servants, we must, in the name of 
the Lord and Law-giver, testify and protest against 
this breach of the Lord's law and wrong done to men. 
We claim no power, no right, to execute law — to the 
Law-giver belongs the right and power of execution, 
as to time and manner. But be assured, as to time 
and way He will exact justice for transgression. 

In the case in the text, He turned these devils out 
of possession. So He will turn the disobedient, 
unjust and cruel out of possession, sooner or later. 
We cannot cast out devils, but we can do our duty 
by warning, testimony and teaching, and through these 
He has promised to put forth the hand of Divine 
power, do the work and vindicate Llis lav; and Gospel. 
The servants of Christ in no land can let the unspeak- 



THE GOLDEN POT. 29 1 

able Turkish assassin and the brutal Spaniard alone. 
A long time ago, when Cain murdered Abel, and God 
called him to account, the brazen-faced fratricide 
coolly said he was not his brother's keeper! The 
Almighty Judge decided that he was, and pronounced 
sentence against him. 

These Armenians, Cubans and Philippines are 
brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity, 
and our brothers in humanity, and we cannot be right 
in the Lord's sight and let them alone. Some have 
said, "Shall we give our noble sons and countrymen 
to the death for such creatures as inhabit those 
islands?" Some forty years ago the expression was 
heard, "We will not give our sons to die for 'niggers!' " 
But they did, willing or unwilling, by the thousands. 
We must learn, whether by precept or judgment, that 
the human race is a unit in humanity and rights. 
What aggravates the Spanish case is that they have 
been doing their inhuman, cruel, devilish work in 
His name. Bob Ingersoll says, "The Spanish are so 
cruel because they are so religious." I admit that 
the religion of Sunday Spanish bull fights, that, 
according to statistics, kills five thousand horses and 
one thousand two hundred bulls every year (the 
number of men killed is not stated — they are not so valu- 
able!) — I certainly admit that this is a cruel religion, 
and that they are very religious. In the last four 
hundred years, under the cross, they have reddened 
almost every sea with blood, and by hundreds of 
thousands filled graves on every continent of earth. 
Yes, they are very religious! 

In our text, Christ bade devils to keep silence and 
not say that they knew Him. He refuses to be 
acknowledged by devils in any form, human or satanic. 



29^ 



THE GOLDEN POT. 



We cannot let them alone to do their inhuman work 
in the name of Christianity. It is a most heinous 
insult to the Lord Christ. We cannot let the heathen 
alone. They are part of the race for which Jesus died. 
They will not let us alone. The Lord has committed 
them to the Church as a charge, saying, "Go, and 
preach the Gospel to them, because they are brethren 
in humanity, and godless and hopeless. However 
much they may like their own religions, harems, poly- 
gamy and superstitions; however much they may 
be set one against another, the mother against the 
daughter, the mother-in-law against the daughter-in- 
law, and the man's own household made his foes, by 
the preaching of the Gospel — this is the sword I came 
to send on the earth. You know they are possessed 
and tormented and without God and without hope 
in the world, and if you would obey Me and extend 
My kingdom and secure a blessing to yourselves at 
home, you cannot let them alone. They will not let 
you alone. To withhold My Gospel from them is to 
narrow and impoverish your own souls in selfishness 
and idolatrous avarice. Go and pour the light of 
truth upon their misery and vileness, and teach My 
Gospel of power, grace and love, and I will give them 
hope and peace and life and happiness, and enrich you 
with Divine, reviving grace and joy. Do not let them 
alone." There is not a personal unbeliever nor sinner 
on earth the servants of Christ dare let alone. Our 
present safety, peace and welfare forbid it. Who are 
bringing into the world and training the criminal 
classes, that are costing us so much and putting our 
most valued interests, national, social, moral and 
religious, in peril? Who are filling streets and homes 
with children and youth, preparing them for your 



THE GOLDEN POT. 295 

reformatories, jails, prisons, almshouses, and eventu- 
ally for a hopeless hell, and now inoculating society 
with moral diseases more hurtful and deadly than 
any physical pestilence? Who? The unbelieving-,, 
godless, sin-loving, and sin-living. And we know 
their guilt, and peril, and doom, and if we have the 
spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Divine love, we cannot 
let them alone. They may call us impertinent and 
meddling, yet however they resist, we cannot let them 
alone. As Christ said of those who crucified Him, 
"They know not what they do;" so it may be true 
of these. 

But in spite of all opposition, we must teach, exhort, 
persuade and pray, as the means of bringing Christ's 
power to dispossess and save them. We have no 
power of ourselves, we cannot compel either devils 
or men; we cannot by force of law cast out the devils 
of Sabbath breaking, lust or drunkenness. Our power 
all lies in the might of the truths we teach, the resist- 
less force of the Divine love we reveal and manifest. 
Our power as teachers, ministers and servants of 
Christ is all moral and spiritual. But if we speak His 
truth in love, testify, exhort and pray in all fearless 
faithfulness, in true humility and kindness, through 
this channel He will send His Divine power and do 
the work, and sinful souls will either in justice be 
condemned, or by Divine power dispossessed and 
saved, to the endless glory of our Lord's righteous- 
ness, holiness and grace. 



0021066 439 7 



